Heartless
by FHT3rdandCo
Summary: Despite the peace brought about by concluding Drosselmeyers classic tragedy there still seem to be some unease.   Post series, FakirxAhiru.
1. Yume

_((A/N: Alright! Goldy-chan has requested a fic from me and I have obliged XD lol. It's_

_not that good but meh, are any of my fics?_

_Ne! Listen! Listen! This is shameless advertising for my other Princess Tutu fics! **Obey **_

_**the shameless advertising!**_

_…this chapter needs editing desperately… T.T maybe I should get an editor?_

_X3 That's all the space I'll waste here, have a wonderful day!_

_Muse-chan out!))_

* * *

**Heartless**

_Yume_

_Mukashi, mukashi…_

_There was once a lonely lake, doomed to spend all of eternity without a creature treading on its waters. The lake itself was sad, for no avian, frog or fish would come to it, it was left with only the trees that guarded it from the sun, for the lake was sure that it was ugly and that was why no animal would live with it. The sun's rays would surely only accentuate its hideous nature._

"_Listen to me," a voice said one day, "If you learn to sing, you may attract the birds."_

'_How?' the lake longed to ask, but she had no voice. No way of expressing how she felt._

'_Surely the trees will know,' she thought, 'For the trees are old and wise and kind. They have always helped me in the past.'_

_But the trees would not answer her plea for help; they remained as silent as they would to any breathing creature._

'_Have the trees lost their voices?' she wondered, hoping that it couldn't be true. The trees had been her only companion for so long…_

_How was she to learn to sing without a voice? How was she to get a voice without the trees?_

"_Listen to me," the voice came again, "If you learn to listen, you may attract the frogs."_

'_How?' she longed to cry out, but she had no voice._

_How was she to listen? The trees would surely know, but they would not answer her calls!_

_Was she to always be so lonely?_

"_Listen to me," the voice came one last time, "If you learn to look, you may attract the fish."_

'_How?' she longed to question, to hear, to see, but she was a lake and she could not._

_...  
_

In some places the darkness can be so great that even seeing your own hand can be a tremendous task.

If being in such a place troubled Fakir, he didn't show it. Easily walking forward and keeping his eyes set straight ahead, he continued. There were no walls to lean on, nor were there furniture to trip over. All he had to rely on was his posture.

It was a good thing, then, that he had taken several years of dance. His graceful movements and controlled balance were the reward of so many years of studios work.

Where would the darkness end?

If such a question troubled him, he did not show that either.

To see his face at the moment though, would be a truly terrifying thing to some. But no one could see the unfamiliar expression on his face. It was far too dark for that.

Though, one could note if they were able to see him, Fakir should not have orange eyes.

...

The sun shown just over the horizon, bathing Kinken Academy of The Fine Arts in a misty morning light. At the boys' dormitories, in room with the biggest balcony, the curtains fluttered. If there had been an early riser on a walk, they might have spotted the shuffle of curtains or perhaps even noticed the bright orange beak that peeked out from behind the curtains.

Inside the dorm, two boys slept peacefully on separate beds, happily dreaming away until the time they must get up for their classes.

That is, until the beak gripped the bottom of the curtains and dragged it open. Light flooded the room and attacked the unsuspecting victims on the beds.

"Qua quack!" the small yellow duck cried as if to bid them good morning.

"Damnit…" groaned one boy, pulling the covers over his head.

"…Fakir… I'm going to kill your duck someday." The second threatened while he hid under the sheets as well.

Ahiru looked insulted. With a determined quack she flew to Fakir's bed and began pecking at his visible foot.

"Ow! Cut it out Ahiru!" he dragged his foot under the blanket but Ahiru followed, an annoyed look on her small face. Crawling to his face, she found his eyes clenched shut. With another disgruntled squawk she bit his nose.

"Aah! Damnit Ahiru! Let go of my nose!" the blankets had long since hit the floor as Fakir's struggled to pull the avian off his nose.

"…she bit your nose?" now curious, Fakir's roommate tugged the blanket away from his face to view what he believed would be a most humorous sight. Indeed, Fakir had his hands clamped over the ducks small body, attempting to tug her off, while Ahiru remained as determined as ever.

If he were anyone else, he might not have believed what he was seeing. But as the unfortunate roommate of the schools living, breathing, ice-cube; he had seen many similar and even more humorous sights.

He was one of the very few people in the school that knew Fakir had a pet duck.

When he had first come to this room, expecting his roommate to be as closed and cruel as he'd normally seen at school, he was very surprised to see him arguing with the duck. His expression was far from the guarded one that his classmates had become oh so familiar with. In fact, despite his obvious annoyance at the animal, he seemed to have a rather warm expression.

"Damnit! Mikhail! You could help!" a pause, "And stop snickering!"

He let out one more chuckle before getting up to help his roommate escape his unconventional pets wrath.

When it was finally over, Fakir needed a Band-Aid for his nose.

He glared at the duck disdainfully, a look that Ahiru had come to associate with 'we are _not_ going to the lake today'.

Mikhail sighed at the staring contest, "I'm heading out Fakir, _try_ not to piss Ahiru off again."

Fakir turned to yell at his roommate but found that Mikhail knew better than to stick around after such a comment.

He gave a long sigh of both irritation and exhaustion before standing up with a grumble, "You never woke up early when you were human… geez…"

Ahiru pecked his foot, declaring in her quack-ish language that she _did_ wake up early when she was human, but somehow she still managed to be late regardless.

Fakir retreated to take a shower though, not bothering to wait for the rest of her argument… whatever it was.

It was irritating at times, not being able to understand one another, in the first month after becoming a duck she forgot all the time that he could not understand. She'd gotten better with time, learning to instead to express most of her sentences with actions.

Still, he couldn't help but wonder how biting his nose translated into 'wake up'.

...

Ahiru was a duck with a mission.

Fakir had long since left for class leaving her alone with the strict orders to stay in the room.

That was all fine and dandy but _she_ was of the opinion that fresh air and a good walk around the school would do her a lot of good. The window would not open(Fakir made sure of that) and she had no way to open the door.

_But_ she did happen to know that Mikhail finished his first period in a few minutes. He always left his fencing gear in the room until his first period was over. She used to be able to sneak passed him easily when he opened the door but he'd learnt over the month he'd been living with Fakir and her how to block her path.

If she looked really cute, she could sometimes convince him to let her out but after get yelled at by Fakir he stopped that as well. She also used to be able to scare him into letting her out, threatening to peck him and the like but he had long since lost his fear of her flying bird kicks.

So, the question now, was how to get past Mikhail?

If she could, she would have smiled deviously. She would extra sneaky today.

...

"Ahiru?" Mikhail entered the dorm with an apprehensive expression, the memory of her flying off a bookshelf to attack him still fresh in his mind.

There was no reply and Mikhail hurriedly shut the door behind him. It was an in and out job, all he needed to do was grab his duffel bag and hightail it out of there.

'_Is she asleep?_' it was a possibility; there were several times he was able to escape without trouble because of her sleeping habits.

Not bothering to find out he picked up his duffel in a hurry and rushed from the room.

_Inside_ his duffel bag, Ahiru celebrated.

It was only a few seconds after he was out of the boys' dorm that he heard the zipper of his duffel bag start opening. When it finally occurred to him the trick that had been pulled, Ahiru was already waddling away.

"Fakir's going to kill me…" he couldn't help but wonder if perhaps he'd have better luck if he attempted to fit his duffel into his locker instead of leaving it in the dorm room.

Ahiru waddled happily around campus; the familiar scenery always brought her a nostalgic feeling of joy. Despite it only being three months since she attended classes there it felt as if it had been much longer since she donned the grey and white uniform.

People used to stare at her as she waddled around but many had gotten used to the yellow duck on campus. It was a great mystery who it belonged to though.

'_Let's see,_' Ahiru thought mildly, '_Pique and Lillie should be in the classroom; they have a lecture for second period. Fakir's probably stretching, his second period is dance… Freya-chan's in his class so she'll be there too. Malon-chan has a free period so she's probably sketching either by the fountain or the ballet room. Hermia-san… oh, I've forgotten what she has for second period… Autor is probably in the library, he has a free period too. Charon-san's probably busy with the shop… perhaps I could visit Ebine-san?_'

Despite her friends forgetting about her time as a human, she kept track of them anyway. Even in duck form, it was always fun to hang out with Pique and Lillie(though one day they were going to crush her poor hallow bird bones, she was sure of it) and Freya usually let her help with the flowers(not that she could do much) and Malon-chan drew her once. Charon remembered her, but he was always very busy(he has a job after all). Autor also remembered her, but he still didn't care for her much(though he could be nice at times).

Ebine-san was always very sweet to her in duck form, her exuberant attitude hadn't changed much and she was always happy to feed her visitors(even if they were a duck).

Now determined to get some of Ebine-san's fresh made bread, she trotted along with new vigor…

…until she got crushed underneath someone's foot.

"Quack!"

"Kyaa!"

There was a small crashing noise as the surprised pedestrian tripped over the duck and fell to the hard cobble-stone path.

The student groaned, "What the did I step on…?"

Ahiru, still feeling rather abused and quite dizzy with pain remained silent as her attacker turned.

"A duck…?" sitting straighter now with a confused expression, the poor girl puzzled over the presence of a duck.

"Qua…" Ahiru muttered weakly.

"H-hey… are you okay?"

Immediately reacting to the question Ahiru looked at her.

"Quack!" _Elsie-san!_

The short blond girl let out a relieved sigh, "I'm really sorry, duckling… oh no! I'm even later than I was before!" she scrambled to her feet and ran to the class.

Ahiru stared after her a moment, she'd never talked to Elsie before, she was in the special class with Rue-chan but Ahiru never really had the chance to talk to anyone from the special class much.

'_She seemed nice… I wish we could have been friends…_' it was one of the many disappointments Ahiru found after becoming a duck, not the friends she left behind, but the friends she could have had. Many times she'd find herself meeting someone she knew only by name, or even less than that at times.

It was fun, yes, to become friends with them even as a duck, but… it was far different from sitting next to Hermia-san and talking about love, or commenting on Malon-chan's paintings or complimenting Ebine-san on a delicious meal…

'_But,_' Ahiru stood as straight as she could, '_That won't stop me from trying!_'

She was a duck, she knew, she would never stop being a duck, this was a fact she had always acknowledged, but that wouldn't stop her from making the best of her time!

Now! Off to Ebine's!

"Where do you think you're going?"

Ahiru's blood ran cold and she turned around nervously to look at the _very_ annoyed ballet dancer.

"Quack!" _F-Fakir!_

It only took a moment before she turned to run.

It took even less time for Fakir to get a firm grasp on the single feather protruding from her head.

Ahiru squawked at the sharp pain that ripped through her skull and immediately stopped her mad dash.

"Ahiru, would you care to tell me what you are doing outside the room?"

'_Oh no…_' Ahiru gulped and went for her last resort.

Full blue eyes gazed into Fakir's pleadingly, her cutest 'innocent ducky' expression on.

Fakir glared darkly at her cute look and she was reminded that he had grown more or less immune to her ducky charms.

Time to get cuter…

"Q-qua…?" the defenseless duck tone! Works in even the bleakest of situations!

Fakir sighed; she was pulling all the stops, wasn't she…?

He groaned, "_Fine_… just don't wonder far… and stay out of trouble."

Happy that she wouldn't be dragged back to the dorm after all she quacked joyfully in response.

'_I'm way too nice to her…_' with narrowed eyes he put her down and patted her head, "Be careful, okay?"

As much as his overprotective nature annoyed her at times, she couldn't help but feel special at that moment. A bright flush crossed her feathered cheeks and she nodded bashfully.

Fakir got up and began towards the ballet building.

Ahiru blinked in confusion, '_Wasn't he in class…? He was in his leotard and everything…_' Ahiru's eyes widened and her gaze shot to the window protruding from the building. How could she have _not_ thought of that? Next time she snuck out, she'd be sure not to be right in sight of the window. Fakir would be able to spot her easily.

Now where was she… oh yes! Ebine's! Excited once more at the prospect of fresh bread she trotted along the familiar path, this time avoiding being trampled by the students.

...

For those who looked, they would note that the gates to town opened nowadays like any other gate. There was no mysterious appearances through the gate.

Autor was someone who looked.

The boy was too strong willed for his own good really, even when Drosselmyer had all the villagers under his spell, to not be able to notice obviously odd occurrences, Autor had always made a point to know what went on around him, even when his brain refused to acknowledge the information.

It was why he kept journals. Day after day he would write the events of the previous day, day after day he would read his journals in hopes of being able to _know_ what he knew was wrong. He'd watched day after day and still, _still_, he was only able to tell what was wrong after the story was over.

It was why he remembered the story everyone had forgotten. He _refused_ to forget. He'd spent too much time training to _never_ forget.

Even that which had escaped his mind; he was able to find in his journals. He'd learned to trust his journals above all logic.

The story was over though, and though all his training had paid off in many ways, he couldn't help but feel as if he was soldier that was no longer necessary. Like all his training had been useless in the end.

His logical side told him that this was untrue, and pointed out quite pompously all he had done; everywhere his training had paid off. But still…

It was possibly this feeling of uselessness that was making him uneasy, making him watch the east gate with a calculating and cautious eye. The voice in his head, the one he had determined had saved him from Drosselmyer's rule, or perhaps it was simply paranoia, whispered that it wasn't over. That Drosselmyer still held one more trick… that the gates would welcome more trouble… that something was stirring.

He tried to reason that perhaps he was over-reacting. That he was being foolish. That he simply didn't _want_ the story to come to an end. But…

…even so, even with such thoughts, he continued to watch the gate. Even if he was just paranoid and insane, in his mind, it was far better to be paranoid and insane than right.

Because if he was right…

A sound came from on the other side of the gate and his heart stopped, was he right all along? Or would some normal person simply pass through the gate like any other day?

He heard the bell ring signaling third period but he paid no mind. His eyes locked on the gate, waiting for them to open and welcome whatever trouble or trivialities that lurked behind it.

The gate did not open.

As Autor stared soundlessly at the figure walking, paying him no mind, from the gate he felt a cold and horrible feeling grow in his gut.

He was right.

* * *

_((Ending Note: It's not even fourth period and the plots already arrived! X3 lol, I hope you have all enjoyed this thus far; it's been more fun than I expected to write._

_Oh yes!_

_**Elsie is NOT an OC!**_

_XD XD XD lol, she's the blond haired girl with the pigtails! She's in the special class, you see her everywhere when there's class pics. She was there when Rue is first introduced(dancing), she was part of the gaping audience that watched Ahiru and Rue dance, I don't know if she was in the walking to the Eleki troupe pic, but I'd bet she was! She is also sitting next to Pique in the audience I believe while Fakir and Ahiru danced._

_Anyone else find it funny? No? Well fine then…_

_Mikhail is an OC, but I wanted Fakir to have a roommate and stuff(it's all the funnier that way!)… its a German name, and if babynames . com is correct, it means 'who is like god'._

_Anywho, like? Don't like? Getting out your flamethrower? :3_

_-Muse-chan going to bed with happy thoughts!))_


	2. Mizube

_((A/N: Hello! I've come with an update :3 you all happy? Wishing I'd updated a different fic? Tough luck. X3 this was loads of fun to write so I truly hope you all enjoy!_

_-Muse-chan out!))_

* * *

**Heartless**

_Mizube_

_Mukashi, mukashi…_

_There was a lonely lake where none would go. One day, it heard a voice._

"_Listen to me," it said, "If you learn to sing you may attract the birds."_

_But try as it might, it could not._

"_Listen to me," the voice came again, "If you learn to listen, you may attract the frogs."_

_But try as it might, it could not._

"_Listen to me," the voice came one last time, "If you learn to look, you may attract the fish."_

_But try as it might, it could not._

_The lake was desolate and lonely. Even the trees had stopped listening to it._

_It was desperate, all else had failed and it was still lonely. So it wept and wept._

_Eventually, it was able to hear an old, crackling cackle._

'_Who?' the lake longed to ask, but it could not speak so it could not ask._

"_You have lonely for so long, yet no one will help you." this was a new voice, one the lake had never heard before, "Would like me to help you?"_

'_Yes!' the lake wanted to cry out._

"_Listen to me," the other voice came again, "Do not trust the laughing voice."_

_But the lake had had enough of the first voice and would not listen to its warning…_

_...  
_

How had she come to be in such a small, happy and peaceful town…? She couldn't help but feel odd in such a place.

But thinking again, it wasn't her part to feel odd about it. Her part was to be indifferent.

So be it.

...

Ahiru munched happily on her bread, it was with great satisfaction that she found that Ebine-san had just finished making some when Ahiru waddled through the entrance.

"Oh my!" Ahiru looked up at Ebine's sudden cry, startled away from the delicious food before her, Ebine seemed to sense her start and looked down at Ahiru fondly, "It's nothing, Ahiru-chan. I just thought I spotted Fakir's friend rushing past. It seemed rather out of character considering how calm and reserved he normally is…"

Ahiru blinked, placing who 'Fakir's friend' must be. '_But why would Autor be running around…?_' Ahiru was getting worried, Ebine made a point when she mentioned Autor's slightly haughty nature. He wouldn't be running unless…

'…_is something wrong?_' Ahiru found that her apatite was dying quickly, replaced by a squelching worry. Not even bothering to squawk a goodbye at Ebine, Ahiru rushed out of the restraint.

Ebine blinked in surprise at the ducks sudden departure, "I suppose she had something to do…" smiling widely again, she went about cooking for her leftover customers.

...

'_I have to tell Fakir._' There was someone spinning a story, Autor was positive it wasn't Fakir but he wasn't sure it was Drosselmyer either. Drosselmyer was gone. Unless Drosselmyer had other means of interacting with the world of the living…

Autor paused in his mad dash. Did he…? But what? How? He shook his head, first he needed to tell Fakir _then_ he could brainstorm possibilities.

Still, as he continued through the park by the school, he couldn't but think, ponder, if he were Drosselmyer he would have a backup plan, wouldn't he? Or perhaps someone else entirely…?

But who…?

Autor scrunched his brows, he knew of all of Drosselmyer's descendants and he was sure none but Fakir owned the talent.

It was infuriating, _maddening_, but at the same time Autor couldn't help but feel guiltily excited. In a way, he had been hoping adventure would strike them once more, hoping that maybe this time he could be of more use or a more prominent character…

...hoping for the impossible.

He knew well enough who the main character of the last tale was, and he couldn't help but feel a resentful jealousy.

_Prince Siegfried_, or Mytho if you preferred, got a wonderful fairytale ending with the girl of Autor's dreams.

It felt unfair, Ahiru had suffered for him, Fakir had fought for him, countless people had nearly died for him and in the end, Mytho was the only one with a happily ever after.

Sure, the countless people hardly even recalled that little adventure. Sure, Fakir and Ahiru seemed satisfied with their current lifestyle. Sure, it wasn't a _tragic_ ending…

…but no one else got their 'happily ever after'.

He knew he was probably alone in this train of thought. Ahiru and Fakir would suffer through far worse for their precious prince. The townspeople would be mindless pawns again if it was written. And Rue…

He knew that Rue had chosen Mytho. And he knew that even if it was what most would probably call puppy-love, he had truly fallen for her.

So where was his ending?

In the back of his mind he couldn't help but think if he were a main character, if the plot revolved solely on him, then perhaps he could…

…but that was impossible, logic would always protest, because he simply was not important enough to be a main character.

Maybe he could try a supporting role… maybe he could fight like Fakir and Ahiru. Maybe he could play the side-character with passable ending.

The thought was never completed because of something small and feathery landing on his head.

"A-Ahiru?" he sputtered, scrambling to a halt. The duck quacked an affirmative and flew to the ground in front of him with an imploring expression. He shook his head, he'd need to explain this to both of them at once, "We have to find Fakir."

The imploring expression quickly changed to one of the deepest worry and Autor resisted telling her that nothing was wrong with Fakir. They'd find him faster if Ahiru thought it was urgent.

She didn't take long to take to the air, Autor followed after her scrambling flight knowing full well that she would know Fakir's exact location.

They broke onto campus soon after, most that saw them thought it a most amusing sight, Ahiru leading them to a classroom in the ballet building.

Autor gathered himself before he did something stupid like burst into the classroom. As calmly as he could he peeked into Fakir's third period class, he couldn't spot which teacher was giving a lecture to the class but he could see Fakir sitting stiffly in the second row.

Ahiru didn't share his composed nature though and began to squawk loudly at the door, flying up to the small window. Autor's eyes widened and he attempted to restrain her but it was too late.

The door was flung open by a teacher.

Autor was about to begin a string of apologies but the words died on his tongue.

Neko-sensei glared down at them both.

Autor needed to only glance at Fakir to know that he didn't have to rush here in such a panic. Fakir already knew.

Someone was spinning a tale.

...

After a rather long lecture that unfortunately even Ahiru, the duck she was, was not spared from, Autor and Fakir were finally allowed leave with the whimsical excuse of needing to see the nurse due to a stomach ache. Neko-sensei still promised them both detention though.

It was decided quickly that they would discuss it at Fakir's dorm, it being a rather delicate topic and just a tad confidential.

Autor was already back to his normal composure when they arrived, coughing awkwardly he began, "So… someone's spinning a tale again…" he trailed off.

Fakir turned to him sharply, "If you're suggesting that I—"

Autor didn't allow him to finish his defense, "No, I didn't mean it like that."

Fakir sighed, frustration showing on his normally stoic face, "It couldn't be Drosselmyer… but if not him, who?"

Ahiru looked down, she had nothing to add to the conversation, or at least nothing the two of them would understand anyway. She let out a small duck like sigh and averted her attention else where.

Discreetly as she could she made her way to the window, no one seemed panicked on campus. To them it was just another day; they probably didn't even notice Neko-sensei's reappearance…

She sighed, was it Drosselmyer? She shivered slightly at the thought, she'd never been scared of the old man until she'd become his puppet. Moving against her will to the puppeteer's beck and call, her dance was prettier than any she could elicit even while being Princess Tutu but it filled her with fear and panic.

She didn't fear him in the end. She still took his words at face value. But… that was when she was a character playing her part…

Panic suddenly came to her, what was this story about? It would obviously be a tragedy if Drosselmyer had anything to do with it but Drosselmyer didn't just write random tragedies, his stories had a plot. A point.

What was the point of this tale?

She longed desperately to ask the conversing males this, but she knew Fakir would lecture her if she began squawking at them. They couldn't understand her.

She sighed and faced the door, her mind wandering across the countless possibilities that could be going on…

…and this was when the door opened.

"Hey, Fakir, I'm really sorry but Ahi—" Mikhail blinked in surprise at the scene. Ahiru quacked in greeting and flew over to him.

Fakir managed to look less haggard than he truly was, "Hi Mikhail…"

Mikhail raised an eyebrow and picked Ahiru cautiously, it didn't take a genius to notice the high tension in the room, "Hey, Fakir… Aotoa?"

Autor sent a light glare, "Autor." He corrected.

"Right…" Mikhail pet Ahiru once before putting her on his bed, "Listen, I'm going to take a shower before my next period…" he didn't bother to say anything else, and began to walk away before he turned around once, "Er… would you like me to bathe Ahiru while I'm at it?"

Fakir, much to Mikhail's surprise, looked absolutely _livid_ at the idea, "No." he managed to grit out through clenched teeth.

Mikhail decided not to question this and scuttled to the bathroom, wondering why Autor looked so amused.

"Geez… I just figured a duck might get in the way of their conversation…" he said after he was out of hearing range.

...

It was awhile before Fakir seemed to calm down enough for the conversation to get back on track. Autor couldn't help but be amused and feel a little sorry for Mikhail, the guy had no idea how Fakir felt about his duck…

Autor blinked, how _did_ Fakir feel about his duck? He decided he didn't quite want to know. At very least, he didn't think it would be the smartest thing to ask Fakir right about now.

Fakir sighed, "We'll discuss this after school. I have to get back to class." Autor nodded in understanding, also not looking forward to the detention they would surely get even if they rushed to class immediately.

"Ahiru, stay inside till I get back. I'm serious, if someone's spinning a tale it could be dangerous for you to waddle about." Ahiru nodded, as much as she hated to admit it, Fakir had a point.

Fakir smiled slightly and pat her head.

Autor watched the scene with mild interest. When Ahiru was human, he was almost positive that Fakir had more than friendly feelings for her but he'd never thought of how the feelings may or may not have changed after Ahiru became a duck again.

Could he possibly still feel the same…?

Autor shook his head, if so than the ending was possibly not as satisfactory as he thought…

...

Fakir sighed, unable to relax during his history class; there was a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that he was forgetting something desperately important…

But what could it be?

Fakir twitched in annoyance, his eraser accidentally falling off the side of his desk. Resisting the curse on the tip of his tongue he was surprised when a hand held his eraser to him.

One of the few other males in the ballet section of the school was smirking condescendingly at him.

Fakir glared, he'd never particularly cared for the boy. The guy tended to treat others with a mocking attitude.

…not that Fakir was much better with his cold attitude.

"Aw, don't be like that Fakir-san; I just picked up your eraser after all." It was a statement that would have been friendly if he'd said with a playful tone, but as it was it was entirely sarcastic.

Fakir gave his ever famous look of disdain before hissing back, "I don't want it anymore."

The boy looked as if he would burst out into snickers but merely shrugged, "Suit yourself."

Fakir went back to brooding, sending the occasional scathing glare at the boy fingering his eraser, and grateful that the droning teacher had taken no notice of the exchange.

What was the guys name again…? Fakir stared hard at the wall, straining to remember.

Jaegar. His name was Jaegar.

Fakir did not like Jaegar. Not one single bit.

It was quite mutual.

...

It was with an impish grin that would have sent shivers down an anti-chaos inclined person's spine. It was the grin of a trouble maker about to pull their prank.

In other words, as Autor rushed passed and caught sight of it, he was grateful it wasn't a grin pointed at his precious library.

The girl was however, staring intently at a couple across the campus from her. The frizzy haired girl catching her eye particularly.

Lips pursed with glee, she lifted her quill above the blank sheet of paper and with one eased sweep was able to write 'O' before she was rudely interrupted.

"I haven't seen you here before…" she jumped in surprise and turned to see who had spoken, smiling nonchalantly she replied.

"I'm new."

The pig-tailed girl seemed interested, "Really? What school are you in?"

She continued smiling tolerantly, "Music."

"I'm in ballet! What's your name?"

"Kaethe…"

...

"…_don't listen to the cackling man…"_

* * *

_((Ending Notes: X3 shorter than I'd intended, I wanted to make it a ten page chapter but I wanted it to end here soooo… -.-' lol. :3 can anyone guess who the pig-tailed girl was?(no, she wasn't Lillie)_

_Alright! I'd like to remind ya'll that this was a request fic from my darling Goldy-chan!_

_New characters introduced are_

_-Jaegar (means: hunter)_

_-Kaethe (means: pure)_

_I really want some feed back on the OC's(since I'm not an OC fan myself and I really wouldn't have them in here if not for the request…) I've hardly introduced Jaegar and Kaethe. But what do ya'll think of Mikhail?_

_Okay, I confess, I am really, really nervous 'bout the whole thing -.-' I hope you guys liked it… :)_

_-Muse-chan nervous and hopeful.))_


	3. Sora

_((A/N: Okay… yet another chapter! (BTW, is anyone even _reading_ this fic?) I didn't make it quite as long as I'd hoped but I think it turned out okay regardless… sorta…_

_It's still lotsa fun to write this fic, so I'm happy :3_

_Oh yes! Remember! If there's anything you dislike about the characters(original or not) feel free to inform me! I would adore a critique for this fic!_

_Enjoy!_

_-Muse-chan out!))_

* * *

**Heartless**

_Sora_

_Mukashi, mukashi…_

_There was a lonely lake who was unable to attract any creatures to it._

_One day, a voice came to it and told it how it may find company but the lake could not find out how to go about it._

_When all truly seemed lost she heard another voice, laughing and then asking if it would like him to get her company._

_The first voice warned it, "Do not listen to the laughing voice." But the lake would not listen._

_Laughing all the while, the second voice gave it a name and a single inhabitant…_

_The lake was happy and sure that its loneliness would recede._

_The lake didn't even wonder why the first voice begged it not to listen to the laughing man._

_...  
_

A day was plenty enough time to pass for Fakir to worry himself to death. Sure, Ahiru would likely realize how serious the situation truly was and listen to what he said for once… but what if she didn't? Worse yet, what if Drosselmyer came to _her_?

Yes, Fakir was sure it was connected to Drosselmyer. He wasn't sure how, but he was sure it was. Autor was still skeptical, it was wise of him to be so Fakir supposed, but Fakir couldn't help but be annoyed that the other boy wasn't listening to his opinion.

That wasn't what was on his mind though.

It was nearing the end of his detention but he still couldn't help but feel compelled to rush out like a bat out of hell. Ahiru couldn't defend herself well as a duck. What was she supposed to do? Squirt duck poo at her enemies?

He glared darkly at the mop before him at the unpleasant memory.

As if that wasn't enough, all throughout the day Jaegar had taken every chance he could to annoy him. It was infuriating since the guy seemed to get a kick out of Fakir's death glare.

Fakir sighed; he didn't recall the guy being so annoying before…

…before?

Fakir blinked, he couldn't place exactly when Jaegar had started classes there. It was impossible to trace.

But he knew that Jaegar hadn't been there for the last story. Mytho and he had been the only male ballet students in that class…

So when did Jaegar start taking classes there?

After the story, certainly, but how long after?

Jaegar hadn't been the only new student after Drosselmyer's tale had finally ended, but he could place when the other students started.

Was Jaegar involved in the story…?

And there it was; a horrible, head-splitting headache. The mop hit the floor with a clatter and Fakir clutched his head in vein. The pain shot down his spine and even caused his legs to crumple.

It was quite some time, a half hour maybe, before Fakir had enough sense over the agonizing pain to think straight.

But he could not think of what caused the headache.

He narrowed his eyes, whatever he had thought, wherever his train of thought had been… that was something important to Drosselmyer's new tale.

…but what had he been thinking of?

Fakir let out a long string of curses.

...

In all his days, even during the period of time that Mytho had been attending the academy, Autor was sure he'd never seen anything quite like this.

The squeals from the crowd, mostly girls, were ear splitting.

Even with the weird scene, he normally wouldn't mind…

…_but_ they all happened to be crowding around the entrance to his absolute _favorite_ place.

Annoyance grew in him, who did they think they were? Crowding up the entrance to the library like a group of flies on a pile of dog… he hesitated for the next word, before finding suitable replacement; excretion.

"Oi!" Autor jumped, he had intended on speaking soon, disrupting the gaggle of girls, but someone had managed to beat him to it.

Turning around, he was met with disturbingly purple eyes glaring darkly. Luckily, in his opinion, they were directed at the girls and not himself.

The girls immediately directed their attention to the new speaker. Autor was surprised he had that he managed to shut them up so quickly.

"Get away from my book bag."

Autor stared for a moment, book bag…?

The girls parted like magic, leaving a path for the glowering male. One of the girls tripped and Autor was finally able to recognize the group.

They were from the drama school.

Autor directed his attention to one standing at the far end looking like a dear caught in the headlights. In her hands was a simple black book bag.

The boy strutted up and snatched it from her.

"Morons…" he muttered, glaring at the females until they scattered. Finally he turned and walked past Autor again, all the while not giving him even a passing glance.

Autor was reminded of Rue.

In every way, of Rue.

The raven colored hair.

The disdainful glare.

And how many times, could he count before his single encounter with Rue, had she passed him as if he wasn't even there. But she always caught his eye.

The only thing that didn't scream Rue were the purple eyes.

But they did scream 'raven'. At least in Autor's mind.

He gulped and turned around hurriedly, unable to contain the question.

"Who are you?"

The boy stopped and turned slowly, his glare was still prominent but there was a small amount of amusement, "Drago. Drama school." And he walked away.

Autor wouldn't voice his idea, he didn't know why but he just _couldn't_ voice his idea…

…but something about this 'Drago' was definitely wrong. He couldn't place it, but there was something completely creepy and…

Autor blinked, 'and…?' 'and' what? What else…?

It seemed wrong. Odd.

He looked like a perfectly normal student, but for some reason the idea of him looking…

…human?

Human, yes. The idea of him looking human seemed… horribly wrong.

Autor stopped his train of thought there.

He hadn't been concentrating nor had he been putting energy into that. He could only see things that were odd if he truly tried… and even then it was rare that he could.

His eyes widened, there was only one possibility if his train of thought was true.

He wasn't ensnared by the story.

...

Jaegar was having fun in a way.

Fakir's reactions were utterly _priceless_.

It was true that he was just a bit sadistic, but it came with the territory. He really didn't want to be here…

…if it hadn't been a direct order…

Jaegar sighed and got up from where he sat by the fountain, ready to head for a walk…

He crashed into somebody before he got far.

They almost fell but he decided to have the better part of valor and steady them. He really hadn't been watching where he was going.

He was met with ruby red eyes.

He knew immediately what he was faced with. He couldn't help but smirk nonchalantly at his good luck.

He found it.

It was only another moment before the girl backed away from him and apologized for bumping into him. He recognized her as a member of the special class.

Heidi.

"It was my fault entirely, I'm sorry to have distressed you Heidi-san."

She blinked, surprised, but then she recognized him, smiling apprehensively she nodded slowly, "It's alright… I'll be going."

He let her leave.

It didn't matter. He'd found the ravens daughter.

...

Fakir was relieved when he entered the dorm to find Ahiru curled up on his bed. Smiling slightly he went to take a shower before bed. Mikhail probably used most of the hot water though… he sent a small glare at the motionless napping boy. He always did go to bed early…

He was interrupted by a small quack.

He turned but Ahiru still appeared to be asleep. Confused he approached her, another quack escaped her.

It was a distressed quack.

'_She's having a nightmare…_' Fakir bit his bottom lip and touched the ducks head, stroking her feathers lightly and hoping it would help her calm down.

It took awhile, but Ahiru began to calm down little by little. If his eyes weren't deceiving him, Fakir could have sworn he saw her beak twitch as if smelling something before she finally seemed totally calm.

'_I wonder what it was about…_' he would likely never know. She couldn't tell him after all. He sighed, it was getting dark out and he was tired. Glancing down at the ever inviting bed he decided the shower could wait until morning.

When he'd settled into the bed(as quietly and stealthily as he could), he felt Ahiru snuggle closer to him. Smiling softly, he brought the duck into his arms, ready for a good nights sleep.

...

"Ahhh! Ahiru! Get off my finger!"

Mikhail sighed, pulling the covers closer. Just another day.

…she bit his finger today?

Mikhail let out a snicker.

At least it was Saturday and he only had morning classes.

Fakir had afternoon so he was on his own with the ravenous duck.

Fakir growled in annoyance when Mikhail abandoned him to take a shower… and steal all the hot water!

"Curse you Mikahil!"

Mikhail snickered again on the other side of the door.

...

Autor didn't know much about Fakir's schedule, but he did know that he had no classes Saturday morning. It was unfortunate for Autor that he did have two. Still, he would have two and a half hours to talk with Fakir after his classes.

It was better than nothing.

He did quite a bit of thinking and research the previous night. One of the many things he came to realize was it did not take him effort to notice the gate had not opened. A few months prior and it would have been an extraordinarily difficult task.

It was this and _many_ other troubles that finally led him to conclude to the idea that had been nagging at his thoughts since he'd noticed something odd about Drago.

The story wasn't controlling him. Autor was free of whatever tale was being spun.

Why? He still didn't know. But he was certain it had something to do with Drosselmyer.

Another thing that was nagging at him was the sealed gates.

Last time they were sealed it was because of the raven and it was the heart shards sealing it.

Had Mytho lost his heart again?

The prospect wasn't exactly unpleasant to Autor but he knew it would not make Rue happy in the least. After quite the recap of her life story he had long decided that she didn't deserve more drama.

Had someone else sealed the town? Was it even with the use of heart shards?

He needed to talk to Fakir.

...

When Mikhail came back from his morning class he hadn't expected Fakir to still be there. His class started in a half hour and he usually left early.

He also hadn't expected the air to be horribly thick.

There was a foreboding silence that remained prominent in the room. Fakir looked several shades paler than he should. Autor looked as if he was at a funeral. Even Ahiru seemed upset.

When he closed the door, Fakir finally looked at him before straightening into a standing position. After letting out a calming breath he spoke seriously to Mikhail.

"If she leaves, it's your head."

Mikhail knew he meant Ahiru. Despite how confused and worried he was he simply nodded, unwilling to fight with Fakir when the guy looked like he was either going to rip off someone's head or curl up into a ball of hopeless despair… or both.

Mikhail nodded and Fakir walked out, Autor stumbling after him.

"Well… I guess it's just you and me, ne?" he asked with a strained tone, hoping to lighten the mood.

...

Messy purple hair matched with mischievous green eyes gleamed as she watched yet another chaotic event unfold.

Standing up, Kaethe began towards the library. She'd been almost everywhere else in the school but the library.

A student, taller than her but still short, bumped her to the ground. Looking up, she was met with a cheerful group from the drama school.

They apologized and she acted as any normal, level-headed person would. One of the more friendly ones asked which school she attended.

'_None._' She smiled and replied without hesitation, "Fencing."

...

There were two things Mikhail had learned to fear in his life.

One, of course, is Ahiru's flying bird kicks of rage. The other being his little sister's safety.

The girl had a way of getting into _endless_ amounts of trouble.

But, as she matured, grew older and wiser she managed to stay out of trouble for the most part. It didn't stop him from worrying, being as she was a ballet student and he was on the other side of campus in the fencing school, but it was a small comfort at least that she wasn't the same troublesome girl she was.

Well, at least he knew she didn't _seek out_ trouble anymore.

He sighed and leaned against the window. Ahiru was asleep in his lap and he had that feeling again.

The one where he knew, he just _knew_ that Hiedi had found herself some prime trouble to tackle.

He shook off the thought; he was probably just being paranoid because of how odd Fakir had been acting earlier. Whatever he and that 'Aotoa' guy had been talking about obviously had him shaken and just a bit paler than he should be.

He let out another sigh and glanced out the window.

Ahiru hit the floor and quacked in indignation but Mikhail paid no mind, his face practically _attached_ to the window.

There was his precious little sister, raven hair sweeping the wind, walking towards the forest…

…with some random _guy_!

…and he looked _older_ than her!

"Oh hell no!" There was no way he was letting some suspicious guy lure his baby sister alone in the woods! Glaring darkly out the window for another moment he bolted out of the room, not even bothering to close the door all the way.

Ahiru blinked in surprise, worry crossing her duckish features. She'd seen Mikhail upset(he hadn't been happy the day she bit his toes instead of Fakir's) but she'd never seen him quite so panicked. He always seemed to have a calm and friendly nature to him.

Completely disregarding Fakir's earlier orders, she made haste to follow.

* * *

_((Ending Notes: I dislike how this chapter turned out… I totally feel like I'm rushing things but I need to get to the actual plot, you know? I can't stay in the introductory stages much longer…_

_T.T! But it feels so rushed to me! :(_

_Ah well, I've introduced the last of the original characters(there will be no more) :3_

_Okay! So we have…_

_-Heidi; black hair, red eyes, Mikhail's little sister. I forget what the name means… -.-'_

_-Drago; black hair, purple eyes, a big meanie and super suspicious looking._

_:3 I like Drago, he's got some fun moments ahead… XD_

_The next chapter is when the plot should really start going so stay tuned! :)_

_Thank you very much for reading!_

_-Muse-chan holding a sleeping cat.))_


	4. Umareru

_((A/N: Yatta! I remembered what Heidi's name means! It means 'Of Noble Kin' :3 lol, I picked it out because of the meaning and I totally forgot about it! Lol, I'm a flake, ne?_

_I got some really nice reviews so I was hyped up to write this chappy! I hope you guys like it and please, please, please give me critique! XD it makes me happy on the inside to know how I can improve my writing :)_

_Muse-chan out!))_

* * *

**Heartless**

_Umareru_

_Mukashi, mukashi…_

_There was once a lake so lonely it sought out help from the cackling voice of an old man._

_The trees tried to warn her, "Do not listen to the laughing old man!"_

_She would not listen._

_The wind tried to help her, "The laughing old man will not help you!"_

_She still would not listen._

_The cackling old man let out a long, horrible laugh and gave the lake a single, cursed inhabitant._

"_Quack."_

_What is it? The lake would wonder._

"_Quack."_

_Why does it make that sound? The lake would wonder._

"_Quack…"_

_Why does it always sound so sad? The lake would wonder…_

_...  
_

Ahiru had some trouble keeping up with Mikhail's long legs; the boy was even taller than Fakir! But it didn't help that he was running like a bat out of hell.

What, Ahiru wondered, was his problem?

They entered the forest and Mikhail paused, looking in all directions. Ahiru nearly bumped into his legs, she let out a startled squawk but Mikhail took no notice.

"Damnit…" Mikhail hardly cursed, Ahiru hadn't known him for long but she knew that much at least, "Where the hell is she…?"

There was a startled scream from somewhere a little deeper in and Mikhail ran even faster than before. Ahiru hadn't thought it possible for him to run any faster than earlier but he most certainly was proving her wrong.

"Heidi!" Mikhail called out desperately, hoping that his worst fears(well, not his _worst_…) weren't coming to life.

Ahiru let out another confused squawk, who was Heidi?

"Oniichan!" the distressed scream made Mikhail's blood run cold. Worry for his little sister and complete rage for whoever was hurting her was all that pumped through him… that, and adrenaline.

Both he and Ahiru bursts into a clearing, Ahiru immediately recognized it as the stage where Mytho had given her the necklace… and where Kraehe had tore out his shard of love.

That was far from the scene they were faced with.

...

Fakir glared at the gate in front of him. He and Autor had come to investigate what could be holding the gate shut(he'd skipped his afternoon classes). Fakir all the while hoping with every fiber of his being that it had nothing to do with Mytho.

Mytho's story had ended. He would do anything in his power to stop someone from changing that.

So far there was nothing of interest about the gates other than their inability to open.

Autor let out a frustrated sigh and leaned against the east gate, they likely wouldn't be able to find anything. The last time, it was only because of Mytho's heart shard of hope that they were able to figure out anything at all.

They didn't exactly have anything like that with them.

Autor then groaned, there was too much to think about. Who was writing the story, what the story is about, why no one cared to include him the story, who the creepy boy was…

He felt a twinge of guilt; he'd refrained from mentioning Drago during his long conversation with Fakir. Maybe it was because he had no proof of any of his suspicions and was sure Fakir would act rashly… maybe he just didn't feel like it… or maybe it was the story stopping him…

It didn't matter.

For once, Autor was letting something go. It was out of character of him, he knew, but somehow…

…he wanted to be out of character.

Call it instinct, call it moronic paranoia, but if he were writing the tale and he didn't put one of the characters in it… he would rely on the persons written personality. He would manipulate the person's surroundings so that the person would act as he'd hoped they would.

There was no guarantee that Drosselmyer or whoever was writing this tale thought similarly but it was all Autor had to go off of.

Fakir had just about given up with this gate; he intended to check them all, when an all too familiar sound came from above him.

With wide eyes he looked up and was met with the sight he expected…

A huge amount of ravens crowing loudly and whipping around.

Autor fell onto his bottom at the sudden sight.

The ravens' split into two groups, one began further into town and the other flying along the walls.

It was unspoken; the look Autor and Fakir sent each other before each breaking into a run after the two packs of birds.

If Fakir had been closer to the one heading towards town, he would have chased it instead. As it was, Autor stood closest by a few yards and he went after them. It made little sense to do it the other way around.

Why, Fakir had to wonder, was Autor being so…

…exuberant? Was that the correct word to use?

A supporting character?

Why did it seem so odd to see Autor try so hard? It wasn't like he didn't try in the last story… sure, he was certainly less active.

But he could easily see Autor, the Autor he'd known in the story, sputtering for a few precious seconds after Fakir started running instead of taking the hint and chasing the group headed towards the school…

Fakir's eyes widened; the school! It took every ounce of self control in his body to keep from changing course. He would lose sight of the ravens he was chasing.

He knew windows didn't hold well against a pack of ravens though. He knew that _very_ well.

He clenched his fists and his eyes narrowed into slits. He was trusting Mikhail and Autor with Ahiru's safety.

He wanted to be the one to protect Ahiru.

It was no time for petty things like that, but he wanted to be the one to protect her. He didn't trust anyone to do it for him.

But still, he forced himself to deal with it, repeating over and over in his mind that Autor was smart and Mikhail was not in the upper classes of the fencing course for nothing.

Mikhail could protect her with strength, Autor with wit.

It was a chant, a hopeful one. One that he wished, if he just repeated to himself enough, it would come true.

'_Don't let Ahiru get hurt…_'

...

Heidi used to have nightmares.

When she was a child and not long after they found her, she would have nightmares of glowing red eyes cursing her existence. Claws nearly crushing her.

Her dreams would mostly consist of a beautiful swan who freed her from a cruel enchantment.

She remembered, when they first found her drowned in the lake opening her eyes to be met with an aged and relieved looking women. She lost consciousness again after that.

A women that she soon was told to call 'mother'.

She had no memories of before she drowned and there was no record of her existence anywhere but they adopted her regardless and named her Heidi.

She hated them at first, despised how they acted, what they did… she would always cause trouble.

…and then there was Mikhail-niichan.

He saved her, every time she got into too much trouble. He said she was his little sister and it was his duty to protect her.

She remembered when the dog attacked her and Mikhail ended up in the hospital because he tried to protect her.

She also remembered the disappointment in his eyes every time she cursed their existence, every time she caused mischief.

'_Don't be disappointed in me…_'

She hated seeing that look in his eyes.

So she changed.

She wanted to cause trouble to the pitiful humans(where the phrase came from, she didn't know). Whenever she realized some way she could cause them pain she felt the immediate urge to do so…

…but she didn't want to disappoint Mikhail-niichan.

She avoided places she might get hurt because she didn't want her precious brother to be hurt.

Now, as she looked over her situation, she couldn't help but wish she was just a bit more paranoid.

Pinned to the wall with a blade to her neck she let out a startled shriek. The masked knight pressed the blade even more threateningly against her throat.

He was going to kill her.

"_Hideous raven."_

He'd called her that.

He was going to kill her.

Who was he? Jaegar had disappeared a little before and as much as she didn't care for the guy, she was worried as to whether or not this guy had killed Jaegar as he intended to do to her.

If he killed her, Mikhail-niichan would be upset.

If he tried to kill her, Mikhail-niichan might get hurt trying to protect her.

She glared at him; she would not let him hurt her oniichan! The knight's eyes showed mild surprise.

The simpering girl was no longer scared. A familiar feeling overcame her, she wasn't sure from what or where, but it was familiar. The knight took a startled step back.

The wind picked up and she heard crows— no, they were _ravens_. She couldn't express how grossly happy it made her.

There was a large gust of wind and she stepped into the black slippers—her slippers. Where had they come from? She didn't care.

It wasn't painful. It was refreshing to feel the raven feathers surrounding her. She would kill hi—

If she did bad things, Mikhail-niichan would be disappointed.

'_Don't be disappointed with me!_'

"Heidi!"

He wasn't far away.

Heidi would not let the feathers continue to cover her; she collapsed onto the stage, horror, pain and fear coursing through her. The ravens were whipping about and she knew they were asking why she wouldn't change—transform.

Transform into what?

"Oniichan!" she was terrified, crying and scared.

'_Don't be disappointed with me!_'

'_Don't hurt Mikhail-niichan!_'

'_Poppa…_'

The knight didn't seem to care about her current state of emotion. She was showing weakness, he would kill her.

Mikhail burst through the trees, a duck that no one noticed trailing after him.

It happened too fast. Far too fast.

Autor wasn't far behind Mikhail, the ravens led him right to this spot, and he alone was able to recognize the sword that was headed towards the half covered girl.

Ahiru didn't have time to try to.

Mikhail had run, faster than ever before in front of the blade. He knew the oddly dressed girl was his sister. He would protect her through any means necessary.

No one saw what was coming. All expected Mikhail to be run straight through.

...

Fakir stared at the boy surrounded by ravens from the corner of a building. The uniform told him that he went to Kinkan's Academy for The Fine Arts but what was he doing surrounded by ravens?

He couldn't see the boys face or read his expression.

A bird landed on the boys shoulder and made a loud cawing sound. The boy directed his attention to this bird in surprise.

"You've found her?"

A series of crows followed.

"…then all that's left is to tell her."

Another crow.

"Amnesia?"

There was a short silence.

"Regardless of her state, we've found the princess. We need to follow orders."

There was an uproar of what Fakir assumed was agreement.

The birds vanished and before the boy himself vanished in a flurry of feathers Fakir managed to catch his last words.

"…so we've finally found Princess Kraehe, eh?"

Dread filled the green haired boy.

...

From a tree where none could see, a quill moved across paper in a flourish of movement. The drama below was of no importance other than the scene playing out.

The mischievous grin appeared again as at last a period was written.

"This is a story." Amusement controlled her green eyes as she watched the final act unfold before the story truly began.

"_This_ is a story." She repeated.

...

Mikhail was in a state of shock. The orange haired knight was frozen as well. Autor had to choke back numerous expressions of shock and horror. Heidi had lost consciousness.

And the small, yellow duck remained between the sword and its targets protector.

It is necessary to rephrase this.

The small, yellow duck remained speared on the blade.

* * *

_((Ending Notes: Did I do it? Did I actually manage a cliff hanger? :3 I've tried before but I don't think I've ever succeeded in making a proper cliffy! Well? Did I do it?_

_Mwahaha!_

_I really want to know what you guys think! Please tell me! Onegai! I'll give you a cookie! :3_

_Soooo? Like? Dislike? Getting out your flamethrower?_

_-Muse-chan ingesting cavity inducing goodness.))_


	5. Hikari

_((A/N: Lol, I loved the reviews for the last chappy :3 thank you guys! I'm really happy you like the fic thus far X3_

_…but one of my reviewers brought up a very good point…_

_Fakir's gonna kill me! T.T! I already know how I'm gonna die! Look!_

_Fakir: Where the hell is Muse-chan?_

_Burbs: -snickers- That way. –points to a terrified form hiding under some blankets-_

_Fakir: -takes out sword- Musette! Today you die!_

_Muse-chan: -bursts from blankets and runs- NOOOOO! I'm too cruel to die! Waaah!_

_Fakir: -chases and is faster because he actually exercises-_

_Burbs: -snickers-_

_Goldy: Shouldn't we… I dunno… help?_

_Burbs: -looks appalled- Why should we? I'll be happy to be rid of her!_

_Goldy: -shakes her head- I didn't mean help aniki! I meant help Fakir-sama!_

_Burbs: …you have point… he could use it._

_Muse: -on top of a tree throwing nuts and leafs at Fakir- I don't wanna die! WAAAAH! There's still too much fandom to live for!_

_Fakir: -gets hit by nut- Ow! You are so dead!_

_Muse: Kyaaaa! Muse-chan out!))_

* * *

**Heartless**

_Hikari_

_Mukashi, mukashi…_

_There was a lonely lake that had no one._

_One day a cackling old man offered it someone. Despite all warnings the lake heartily agreed with whatever the man said._

_But as its single inhabitant floated on its surface the lake felt even lonelier than before._

"_Quack." Was all the duck would say. It was always a lonely, horribly sad sound._

_It was a cursed duck._

_The lake was sad and confused, something floated on its surface yet the lake was still filled with loneliness, why? Why was this so?_

_The wind spoke again to the lake, forgiving it despite its foolishness, "The duck is sad because of a curse."_

'_Curse? What curse?' the lake wanted to ask, but could not._

_Did that mean if the duck was no longer sad, the lake would no longer be lonely?_

_The lake wanted to know, more than anything, how to rid the duck of its curse._

…_but the lake did not know, that the curse was buried deep within the small ducks heart, where none would ever be able to undo it._

_...  
_

Prince Siegfried's blade. The only one known to be capable of shattering someone's heart. But only Autor realized this.

Only Autor recognized it as the sword illustrated in Drosselmyer's famous tale, 'The Prince and The Raven'.

The shock, the pain, the horror were all cut short by a flash of red light.

And the duck was no more.

...

Princess Tutu was a storybook character. She was not human.

She had a form, but she was unable to take it. She'd already disappeared once, to resurrect her she would need someone to willingly give up a space in their heart for her to rest her wings.

For now, she hid in her Prince's heart shard of hope. It was his last request of her, he'd asked her if she would help him defeat the raven and she, of course, agreed. Her will was the Prince's will.

She'd already confessed to the Prince once. She'd already disappeared in a speck of light. But Prince Siegfried had no memory of this. He was Mytho now. Prince Mytho…? She was unsure if that were proper address for him anymore, so she would stick to merely 'Prince'.

But time passed, years past as she slept with the heart shard at the bottom of the lake where he had hidden them, but still she did not feel the beckoning. She could not hear any willing to live her tragedy over again.

But she had hope, the smallest amount, that she would have a happier ending this time… or, at very least, she could seek a happy ending for whoever chose to assist her.

It seemed like forever before she heard the words that rang like music to her ears…

"_If I could make the Prince smile, just once, I would do anything…"_

Her and the heart shard she guarded had been summoned. She could finally fulfill her promise to the Prince.

It was never of any big relevance that it was the writer that handed her to her new charge. She was just a character after all.

She was astonished, at first, when she realized that the only person who was willing to live her pain…

…was a duck.

Albeit, the duck with the prettiest blue eyes she had ever seen, but still… a duck in the end.

But this was trivial in the end. As long as she could help Prince Sieg— the Prince, she could be in the form of a frog for all she cared.

When the duck, Ahiru, first became human, she recalled thinking with slight amusement that the girl had some of her traits. The peach hair, but just a shade darker. The skin tone was the same. But her hair was wild, not at all like Tutu's own tamed hair. Her eyes did not change at all and Tutu couldn't help but feel happy they had, they really were very pretty eyes, and only a shade lighter than her own blue eyes. And Tutu, in all her days, had never had freckles.

It suited Ahiru though.

She was a friendly girl; Tutu didn't take long to deduce this, if their relationship had been under less intimate situation than she was sure that she would have made friends with the girl…

…the duck…

It was hard, sometimes, to recall that Ahiru was a duck. Nothing more. Nothing less.

But Ahiru only needed one painful reminder and it was from then on always on her mind.

'_I'm just a duck… I hope Mytho can be happy with Rue-chan._'

It was so different from Tutu's love for the Prince. It was selfless in all its entirety.

It left Tutu wondering at times, who's love was real? Hers? Or Ahiru's? Or were they both love, merely different varieties?

Her first meeting with the Prince as Ahiru still left her happy. To be able to hold Prince Sie— the Prince's hand once more. She couldn't help that her actions had taken over Ahiru's bodily commands.

Ahiru wouldn't have known how to save the Prince.

Ahiru seemed to have some understanding of this though. Even though Princess Tutu had never spoken to Ahiru and Drosselmyer had never given her all the information, Ahiru had always reffered to Princess Tutu as another person and she always willingly gave control over her body so that Tutu could save the Prince.

Tutu could recall with a vivid memory, the first time Ahiru had taken control. She'd made the oddest face and let out a quick, solid 'quack', she'd fled the scene with the Prince as fast as could after this.

Still, it was in no way as memorable as the second time Ahiru had ripped control from her.

"_So, you can't disappear."_

Tutu had felt a mild shock the knight had come to her aid before she could turn herself into a speck of light once more, even in his previous life he had never come to her aid.

And then Ahiru took control from her and she knew why immediately.

It was odd, to her, to think it. Even without thinking on how reproachful he had been earlier(though Tutu had always known they could trust him, she had already known and been prepared for his fowl attitude), it odd to think that the knight would play a bigger part in this story.

He'd always been such a minor character with little development.

But, Ahiru cried for him, when she thought he was gone. She would have dived in after him as well, if Tutu had not, in blind panic, taken it upon herself to remind her of Mytho. She thought she'd have to take control soon, when the girl continued to sob, knowing she couldn't help the knigh— Fakir but still knowing she had little ways of helping the Prince regardless.

But Tutu was proven wrong.

She'd thought that the knight had died again, along with everyone else.

She was wrong.

Ahiru's heart— or was it her own heart? Had skipped a beat as she watched him pull himself out of the water.

Relief had cascaded over both of them.

When he raised his sword, she panicked for a heart stopping moment thinking that he might attack the Prince.

Why was it, that Ahiru had thought he wouldn't? That he would never hurt Mytho? Tutu, who knew the bond between Prince and knight better than anyone in the room, Tutu, who had seen the knight die in order to help his prince…

…had doubted him.

It made her ashamed when she thought about it.

When Fakir had fallen back onto the water, she had thought that Ahiru would break a second time and she would have to muster all her strength to take control from her.

That was not what happened.

Ahiru wiped her tears and stood, forcibly ripping her thoughts away from the sinking knight. He would be mad at her if she stopped now. She needed to rescue Mytho.

It was unlike some of their previous experiences together. She would not-absolutely _refused_-to give full control. It was both of them working together.

Ahiru, she decided then, was beautiful in every single way imaginable.

The next time she had control over the body, she was dancing for the burning embers of a kind puppet.

When everything had returned to normal, Tutu knew it would never go back to the way it was in the beginning with Ahiru ever again.

The entire first week after the event, all she thought about was Fakir. Wondering if he was okay, how he was healing, if he would mind a visit(she'd decided he most definitely would)… there was the occasional stray thought, sometimes, of Mytho and being able to dance with him. She'd been so happy to dance with him by the fire, despite Tutu doing most of the dancing and her friend burning nearby.

It had awoken the urge to dance with him herself. No as Tutu, but as Ahiru.

Tutu would have recognized this as a similarity to her own love for the Prince, but she had her thoughts elsewhere.

When Fakir had come back to school, Tutu knew that even though she did not feel the same amount of relief and happiness as the duck, she was still very happy to see him up and about. All of Ahiru's fretting had begun to worry her as well.

It was not Ahiru that recognized the look in Mytho's eyes when he glared at the sentimental toe-shoes. Tutu had seen plenty enough ravens in her time and plenty enough of the taint that courses through their blood.

But she didn't want to believe that the Prince had somehow been infected by the Raven's blood. It had been too horrible a thought to bear.

When she was proven right, she felt as if her entire world had crashed. The shard of hope had gleamed then and Tutu had been surprised to realize that in a small way, the Prince was trying to comfort her.

She couldn't lose hope now.

Fakir, though despaired himself, seemed determined to do all he could. He helped Ahiru any way he could as well.

He cared for her. Tutu knew this much. He cared for her at least as much as he cared for the Prince.

It made her feel guilty that she hadn't put much thought to the knight. It wasn't that he had no character; she just only bothered to look at what was written.

The knight, she came to realize, was irreplaceable in both her and Ahiru's mind.

It was odd, Ahiru would normally give Tutu as much leave way to do the job as she could but when Fakir was involved, she tended to take control unconsciously.

Though, when Fakir was almost absorbed by the oak tree, it wasn't just Ahiru that danced and begged him to come back. She, along with Ahiru, had let out desperate cries for Fakir to not disappear.

She remembered thinking, as she danced desperately, that he shouldn't be a hypocrite. He'd told her she couldn't disappear. He'd forced her to hold back the painful confession… he couldn't just disappear because of some silly tree! She would never forgive him if he did that!

The knigh—Fakir, was indeed completely irreplaceable.

Her last memory with Ahiru had been a sad one. She remembered hearing the heart-breaking words escape the Prince, _her_ Prince's mouth.

The Prince, Mytho, _Prince Siegfried_, loved Rue. He would go to rescue Rue.

She knew that he didn't know what this meant. She knew, he didn't know that she would vanish again.

But it still hurt.

It took all of her self control to fight tears. Wishing in a small corner of her mind that she had screamed her words of true love to him.

"_So you can't disappear!"_

Fakir. It had been Fakir's words that stopped her.

He would be angry at her if she vanished.

And when she and Ahiru sank into the lake of despair, she wondered briefly if a hero would come to save her. Rue had her hero, why couldn't she?

Ah, she let out her own tears along with Ahiru's, she was Princess Tutu. This was exactly why it had taken so very long to find someone to live her misery.

"_Ahiru!"_

She didn't believe what she heard at first. There was no way…

But there he was, their irreplaceable knight.

Even though she knew he'd come for Ahiru. He'd come to help the duck turned girl. She couldn't help but feel happy, truly happy that he had come for them. A small, hopeful part of her claiming that he had come for them both.

He'd helped her so much and in so many ways.

When she said goodbye to Mytho, even whispered a small goodbye to the duck, she'd wished she could have bid Fakir a small farewell as well.

And she disappeared.

…from plain sight.

...

Mikhail had never seen anything quite like what he was seeing right now.

The knight had removed his sword from the(Mikhail assumed) dead bird and he was powerless to watch as the one thing that seemed to make Fakir truly happy began to descend to the ground.

The duck never made it to the ground.

There was an entirely blinding red light but Mikhail had managed to keep his eyes on the duc—

Girl. The girl that was descending to the ground.

The change had been sudden, odd and completely out of this world but Ahiru the duck had changed into a girl.

But as much as Mikhail was shocked about that, he was even more surprised about the red pulsing… crystal? Was it a crystal? That was floating just above the girl.

Why hadn't she hit the ground yet?

The fist sized crystal cracked. Once, twice and finally in a flurry of breaking the crystal shattered into countless pieces that flew in all directions and out of sight.

Mikhail didn't know what happened, but he knew it was bad. Horribly bad.

Ahiru almost hit the ground but someone caught her. For once Mikhail didn't have trouble recalling Autor's name.

Autor pointedly ignored the nude girl in his arms and instead directed his attention to the sky.

The shards had scattered.

He glanced at Mikhail and saw an expression _demanding_ an explanation but Mikhail let out a heaving sigh and turned to his sister.

"First we go back to the dorm. Then I want to know what the _hell_ is going on."

Autor nodded in understanding.

He tossed Autor his jacket to cover Ahiru with before picking up Heidi onto his back.

They didn't get far before there was a gust of wind and suddenly Mikhail's shoulders felt lighter. _Much_ lighter.

He whirled around as fast as he could but he only barely spotted his baby sister being carried by two raven clad characters before another gust of feathers caused the three of them to vanish.

"Heidi!"

...

The tree, Kaethe decided, was now quite boring. With a triumphant grin, she left.

There were more interesting things about to entertain. There was always an amusing scene taking place.

...

When Fakir got back to the dorm to find the door open, he turned around immediately to go look for his precious duck.

He didn't have the chance to even make it down the hall.

A few feet behind him, Autor and Mikhail were carrying…

"Ahiru!" he rushed over, every fiber in his being panicking. Why was she unconscious? Why was she _human_?

The two boys didn't resist when Fakir ripped her out of their hands, panic and horror filling him completely he sank to the floor shaking her, "Ahiru! Wake up!"

Deep blue eyes opened slowly and Fakir felt relief fill him.

"Ahiru!" before anything else could even be said he had wrapped his arms around her and held her close, "What happened? Are you alright?"

"Probably."

There was a moment in which time seemed to freeze for Fakir, his heart stopped beating, his blood ran cold, goosebumps grew on his skin.

That monotone voice…

"W-what?" he barely even managed to choke it out as he backed away to look at her face.

It remained still and emotionless as she responded, "I don't know."

Fakir instantly knew what was wrong.

…how many years had he heard Mytho say the exact same words…?

* * *

((Ending Notes: Dun dun dun! :3 I know it was a lil lame but meh, what can ya do? Drama aint my forte. I'm comedy all the way! XD

Ohhh you guys don't know how much I wanted to write 'betsuni' because Mytho says that a lot and as far as I can tell it's somewhere between 'I don't know' and 'probably' but I'm not sure if I'm spelling it correctly(never seen it spelled… -.-') and it's not part of the common otaku vocabulary! T.T everyone knows 'gomen', 'baka' and 'hai' but lots of fans get confused with things like 'mizu' or 'demo' so…

-sigh- but I think it would sound so cool! Ahiru-chan saying 'betsuni'(still not sure how to spell this…) in the whole monotone voice! Kya! T.T mou, it's no far… hidoi!

Ah well, I'm over it!(in like, three seconds! Whoot!) what did ya guys think of this chappy? Love? Hate? Getting out your flamethrower? XD

I tried to make another cliffy but I don't think it worked as well as the last one -.-'

Have a wonderful day!

-Muse-chan drawing character sketchy's.))


	6. Koe

((A/N: I decided to be kind and post this today instead of a week from now… :3 yes, I know I'm demented. I'm really happy so many people reviewed last chapter(people actually like this fic! Yay!) though I would like some feedback on the OC's… I'm really nervous about using them to begin with and if there's any time something annoys you about them(like… Mikhail getting too many scenes) feel free to tell me!

Please enjoy reading!

Muse-chan out!))

* * *

**Heartless**

_Koe_

_Mukashi, mukashi…_

_There was once a lake who made a horribly foolish and imprudent decision._

_There was once a voice that tried to warn her._

_There was once a duck with a curse impeded deep within its heart._

_There was once a cackling voice…_

…_voice?_

_How can a lake that cannot hear, listen to a cackling voice?_

_Where to begin?_

_Where will the story lead?_

…

_There once was an untold tale of a little, kind girl who made a foolish wish. The girl did not know that an evil old man had been listening to her every word._

_She did not know not to trust the evil old man when he asked if she'd like it granted._

_He laughed when she agreed but she still did not know not to trust him._

_Her mother had told her not to speak with strangers but she had forgotten this rule…_

_...  
_

Spirits cannot be seen.

Some people are more or less capable of knowing that they're around but most 'sightings' were fakes or hallucinations.

Spirits could not be seen. Nor do they take interest in the living.

There aren't many spirits that wandered Kinkan town. There weren't many tales that resulted in disappearing in a speck of light.

Princess Tutu did not wander Kinkan town.

She remained where she had before, at the bottom of the lake, where she had been while waiting for the call for her to save the Prince.

No one would beckon her, she knew this.

But where else was she to go…?

...

The interesting thing, Kaethe noticed while reading 'The Prince and The Raven', was there _was_ no 'Princess Kraehe'.

She was not in the original text.

It was interesting, Kaethe realized, that Drosselmyer had created a new character half way through with the use of a previous element…

It sounded fun.

What use was there, for another character though?

Princess Kraehe had her uses. She had a purpose in the story.

Thinking on the script that could be found in the tower where Drosselmyer wrote, she had several purposes.

It was a grand tale to read, really. Drosselmyer was quite the author.

Flipping open the book again, Kaethe's eyes landed on the illustration in which Princess Tutu vanished.

A slow grin grew onto her face, had Princess Tutu truly vanished…?

...

Somehow, Mikhail found he wasn't as surprised as he thought he'd be when Fakir recognized Ahiru even though she wasn't a duck.

He shouldn't have. Even if the girl had some key resemblance to the duck you'd really only notice that if you looked up close…

…not glanced over and rushed to her in a panicked frenzy.

He'd honestly expected Fakir's first question to be, "Who's that girl?"

Not a horror stricken exclamation of her name. Not shaking her in panic and fear that she might not awaken.

Mikhail didn't share Fakir's relief when Ahiru opened her eyes. Though he was a bit taken aback when Fakir hugged her.

He still didn't know what was going on; Autor hadn't spoken a word as they snuck into the dorm out of sight with the unconscious girl.

But he _did_ know that whatever that red crystal had been it meant that Ahiru was anything but okay.

"Probably."

It sounded horribly wrong when she said it. He didn't know the girl but he knew the duck.

Ahiru, the Ahiru he knew, wasn't capable of such an emotionless voice.

When Fakir stood and without even looking at him punched him in the face, he couldn't help but feel like he deserved it.

"What did you do to her?"

Autor stopped him before he could attack Mikhail again, "It wasn't Mikhail…"

Fakir whirled on him, "Then who? Who the hell did this?"

Autor flinched, "I don't know…" Fakir would have hit him if Autor hadn't muttered out the next words, "They had Mytho's sword."

Fakir froze again. Mytho's sword? Then where was Mytho? Did something truly happen to him?

Before Fakir could give in to the despair and rage growing in his heart, Mikhail spoke again, "Let's get in the dorm then we'll talk this over."

Ahiru, hearing this, followed orders without thinking.

The three males blushed and averted their eyes as the nude girl walked inside the dorm without a second thought.

"F-first we should get Ahiru some clothes." The others agreed hurriedly.

...

It was silent. No one wanted to begin.

No one knew _where_ to begin.

Ahiru remained motionless on Fakir's bed, leaning against the wall. Fakir's clothes looking excessively baggy on her.

Fakir took a deep breath and glared at Mikhail, "I trusted you to protect her."

Mikhail was defensive, "I didn't know she followed me…"

Before a fight could break out Autor cleared his throat and attention was drawn to him, "I think we should start from the beginning… first, Mikhail, what exactly happened?"

Mikhail looked down, "My little sister… I saw her wandering into the forest with someone I didn't recognize so I went to investigate…"

Autor blinked, "That girl was your sister?"

Mikhail nodded, looking sullen.

"But she was dressed like a…" Autor trailed off, and looked nervously at Fakir, "…she was dressed like a raven."

It was Mikhail's turn to be confused, "She was covered in feathers but I wouldn't say she was dressed lik—"

Fakir cut him off, more than a little panicked, "How exactly was she dressed?"

Mikhail was growing sick of the questions, he had so many of his own and they were talking about the trivialities of a teenage girls fashion sense, "The skirt was sort of like a tutu but the ends were feathery. The top was," '_Something that a fourteen year old girl should most certainly _not_ be wearing._' "…revealing."

It was all Fakir needed to think of Kraehe.

"Are you sure it was your little sister?"

Before Mikhail could even start, Autor spoke, "I know what you're thinking and it wasn't Rue."

Fakir looked like he was going to argue but backed down… for now. He needed to find out what happened, first and foremost.

"Why is Ahiru a girl?"

Autor knew this question was coming but it caught Fakir off guard. He was wondering the same thing but probably not the same way the Mikhail was.

He'd never seen Ahiru when she was a girl, even if he had he wouldn't remember her.

"She…" Fakir trailed off, he really didn't have an answer.

"You recognized her even when she was human. She's been human before, hasn't she?"

It would explain a lot for Mikhail. Even for a well trained duck she responded way to well to assume she didn't understand what you were saying.

"Yes." Autor was the one who answered, "But she really is a duck…"

Mikhail was getting more confused, "What's going on?"

Autor sighed, "How about this, if you tell us all you know, we'll explain what happened… before."

'_Before what?_'

His patience was growing short, he was amazed he managed to remain as calm as he had for so long.

Heidi. His sister. His baby sister had been carried off by some ballerinas dressed like crows and they weren't giving him the answers he needed.

"What happened to Heidi?"

Autor was smart enough to assume this was his sister, "I don't know…" Mikhail was quick to stand, even quicker to grasp Autor's shirt in a death grip.

"What happened to my little sister?"

"He said he didn't know." Fakir detangled the two, "Explain to me what happened."

"Two people dressed as crows took her and disappeared." Mikhail took his glare off of Autor and attempted to calm down.

"The ravens I was following," Fakir directed the sentence to Autor, "They met with a boy. He was wearing the school uniform and he said they found Princess Kraehe."

Autor choked, "Th-they found Rue?"

Fakir shook his head, "…I don't think so." He turned to Mikhail, "This Heidi… is there any chance…?"

Mikhail would have liked to vehemently denied whatever they were talking about, something inside him screamed that it wasn't good. That it was very bad if Heidi were in any way connected to Princess Kraehe.

But something else in him knew that he shouldn't lie right here.

"She was adopted." He began, wishing he could leave it at that, "Mother found her drowned in a lake just outside of town."

There was a horrible silence and finally Mikhail spoke again, "Who is Princess Kraehe?"

And so the long, tiresome explanation began. From Fakir's parent's death all the way up to Ahiru and Fakir bidding the happy couple a fairytale ending.

...

Dizzy. That was what Heidi felt as she stirred on her bed.

…bed?

She couldn't recall when she'd come back to the dorm… the last thing she remembered…

"Mikhail-niichan!" she shot and whirled about to find her brother. He had jumped in front of the sword! Was he alright? Was he even _alive_?

Tears formed in her eyes, what happened? How could she have fallen into unconsciousness at such a crucial moment?

…what was she doing in her dorm?

It struck her as weird. If Mikhail was dead or severely injured the knight would have taken the chance to kill her. If Mikhail had carried her here he would be waiting for her to wake up. He always did.

If Mikhail was dead, how did she get here?

If Mikhail was alive, where was he?

...

It was with disbelief that Mikhail first heard the tale.

But with the heartless evidence sitting on Fakir's bed and staring blankly into space, he really couldn't deny it for long.

It was decided that they would search for Heidi. Regardless as to whether or not she was truly Kraehe, Mikhail would not simply allow for them to ignore his little sisters kidnapping.

Fakir was insistent that they would go but he would stay with Ahiru.

They were only a few feet outside the boys' dormitory when Mikhail asked the all too obvious question.

"He's in love with her, isn't he?"

Autor didn't respond at first, before he sighed and nodded, "I should think it was obvious."

There was a pause.

"Does he even know?"

Autor didn't even have to think this one over, "Probably not. But it's possible I suppose."

Another brief pause.

"Does _she_ know?"

"Definitely not." Replied the astute musician.

Mikhail looked up as if thinking for a moment before snickering lightly, "I guess that's why he wouldn't let me bathe her."

Autor snickered as well.

...

Fakir sneezed and glared at the figures walking away from the dorm, he just knew they were talking about him.

...

Princess Tutu remained where she knew she always would be.

No one would beckon her.

But she always had memories.

And she always had regrets.

If she could have said 'goodbye' to the Knight that helped her through so much.

If she could have…

She wouldn't think about it. She had memories. The happier memories.

She was happy that it was Ahiru who beckoned her.

Something red shined in the corner of her vision and her eyes widened when she recognized it as a heart shard.

Whose? Whose heart shard was it?

It was dark at the bottom of the lake but Princess Tutu knew how to brighten a room.

What she saw made her gasp in horror.

"_No…"_

_...  
_

Watching Fakir's movements around the room, she remained stationary. There was nothing to say. Nothing to do.

No point.

Besides, Fakir had told her to sit still, so she would.

Fakir was kind. It was a fact that flitted through her brain.

What was kindness?

She didn't dwindle on the thought. It was pointless in its entirety.

Is this what it's like to be a doll?

She didn't dwindle on that question either.

* * *

((Ending Notes: Okay! Now you guys better read this because I'm only saying it once!

I'm going to start updating this fic **once a week** sooooo, tell me which day you want me to update on!

I won't be updating until at least one person tells me a day of the week to update on!

I really hope you guys liked this chapter! :3

-Muse-chan doing family time.))


	7. Isuyu

((A/N: Okay! Here it is! My now annual Friday update! X3 I would like to thank profusely those who reviewed(they were lovely to read) and also offer cookies to those who were kind enough to give me days as suggestions.

Mou… Though there is something I must inform you all of, my winter semester starts January second(college is _evil_… same as any school… but_ still!_) and my time is going to be cut in half… don't worry about this fic though! I, in a totally random spurt of inspiration,(cough-reviewers make me super happy and inspired-cough) I've written the next few chappy's! Yay! So this will not stop updating… but I've been really lax on my other fanfics… _sooooo_… to anyone who reads some of my other fiction… which fic should I update Thursday's? XD I wanna update daily(helps my writing skills!) but I don't know which fic for which day(I am supper indecisive)

:3 A cookie to anyone who advises me!

Muse-chan out!))

* * *

**Heartless**

_Isuyu_

_Mukashi, mukashi…_

_There was once a lonely lake with a single, sad, avian floating on its surface._

_The lake was sad and confused, why? Why was it still lonely with the bird swimming on its surface?_

_Time went by, years, and finally the cackling voice was heard again._

_But neither the duck or the lake recognized him._

"_Would you like to know why you are still lonely?" he asked._

_The lake longed to cry out, 'Yes! More than anything!'_

_The man laughed and gave it the answer it so desired to know._

_The lake wished it had never learned the truth._

_...  
_

Spirits cannot be seen.

"_Help! Please! Someone!"_

But maybe… just maybe they could be heard.

Tears filled her eyes, _"Please!"_

_...  
_

Elsie wasn't the brightest person out there. In fact, some would interject that her saving grace was her ability to dance.

But people who knew her better, knew that her saving grace came in her attentiveness.

She paid attention where many failed to and was able to see things that most didn't notice. Little things. Like knowing when someone was depressed or noticing if someone is in love.

It wasn't a huge talent, there were many others who waited and listened. She was just the only one in her particular group of friends that did.

There was one person though, that she found confusing beyond comprehension.

Though Jaegar always had a smirk on his face, he never seemed happy. Though he relaxed and talked with people easily, he always seemed…

…seemed like he was _acting_. Like there was something horribly important that he was hiding.

It wasn't her business, she knew this, but it had her interested. What was he hiding? Why was he never happy? Why did his entire persona seem fabricated?

'_I wonder… if there was any way I could make him happy?_'

She always thought this, when she found a particularly troubled looking person. Was there anything she could do? Anything at all?

Usually, there was nothing she could think of.

'_If I could help I would do anything…_'

...

Kaethe was satisfied with the paper before her, it was genius. Pure genius.

Well… perhaps not _genius_ but it was certainly amusing, in her perspective at least.

If there was one thing to be known about her character, it was her love for chaos. Setting up perfectly stacked blocks just to watch them fall in a chaotic mess.

It was entertaining. It was movement.

It was no fun when things stopped moving.

It was…

She stopped right there, chuckling lightly and shaking her head. She shouldn't delve to deep into her reasons. Not in this town at least.

She didn't need nor want character depth.

...

It didn't take long to find Heidi.

Surprisingly, when they ran into her roommate while searching, the girl said that last she checked(roughly five minutes earlier) Heidi was sound asleep on her bed.

They did a quick visit for confirmation and found that Heidi was beyond happy to see her brother…

…and didn't seem to hold any recollection of what happened that afternoon.

Autor was skeptical but Mikhail took her word for it, he knew she wouldn't lie to him.

Autor shut up but didn't let the idea die in his mind, as much as he enjoyed being out of character he was still the same Autor and didn't let his thesis' die easily.

They went their separate ways for the evening afterward, they were tired and it was getting late.

Mikhail had never entered the dorm to find it quite so depressive. Even when Fakir was being moody, Ahiru always managed to cheerfully greet him.

Ahiru…

She was still in mainly the same position she was in when he left. Her face was blank and she didn't move more than absolutely necessary.

She was like a doll.

Fakir sat on the window sill, back to Mikhail but Mikhail could see his reflection in the glass.

He was upset. That much was certain but it seemed like more than that.

Mikhail didn't want to think about it. He could only imagine how he would feel if the girl he like—_loved_ lost their heart.

But, Mikhail couldn't even begin; he didn't really have anyone he cared for in that way.

Should he head to bed?

Mikhail blinked and furrowed his brow.

"Where's Ahiru going to sleep?"

Fakir's expression didn't change, "On my bed."

He wanted to tease Fakir so badly but he refrained from it, it would be like rubbing salt into an open wound, "Where are you going to sleep then?"

No change, "On your bed."

Mikhail choked, "W-what?" sending Fakir a confused and slightly offended glare, "Then where am _I_ going to sleep?"

Still no change, "On your bed."

It took only seconds for all the blood to drain from Mikhail's face, "N-no way! I do not go that— just— no!" and here he thought Fakir liked Ahiru…

Fakir's eye twitched in annoyance, "Would you rather sleep on the floor?"

'_Yes!_' Mikhail groaned, he'd panicked at first but it really made no sense for Fakir to be… well… he _did_ do ballet… no! Don't think like that! Sighing in aggravation he sat back on his bed and glared at Fakir, "Why can't you just sleep with Ahiru?"

Silence.

"You did it a lot when she was a duck."

He saw Fakir's brow twitch again.

"Fakir… slept with me?"

Her voice was completely monotone and both boys knew what she _meant_… but _still_!

Fakir's face was bright red and he immediately ordered Ahiru never to say that again.

'_He's used to ordering them around…_' it made a little more sense, why Fakir was so bossy. Mikhail had always thought Fakir was just a huge jerk but thinking on his past…

…it was really no wonder Fakir acted like he did.

Mikhail sighed, "Listen. No one cares if you sleep on the same bed as Ahiru where as _I_ care quite a bit if you're within five feet of me while I sleep. I don't trust no male ballerina to sleep next to me. So you either sleep on the floor or with Ahiru."

There was a moment where Mikhail knew he was going to lose his head for saying what he did and he decided that since his grave was already dug…

"Ahiru!" Ahiru directed her attention to Mikhail, "Ask Fakir to sleep with you."

Time seemed to freeze as Ahiru turned to Fakir and repeated what she was asked to.

Fakir's face went completely red within seconds and for a brief moment, Mikhail knew it was completely worth it.

'_Well… at least it's confirmed that he's straight._'

It took Fakir quite a bit to regain speech and when he did, Mikhail had to lock himself in the bathroom so that he could remain alive for another day.

It was still worth it though, Mikhail laughed openly while imagining Fakir's utterly mortified face.

"I'm going to kill you Mikhail!"

...

No one could spirits and not many could hear them.

'_I want to help…_'

"_Someone please help!"_

Even if standing right next to each other, there was no way to help.

Unless…

Elsie stared out the window of her dorm room blankly, her roommate had long since succumbed to slumber and she couldn't help but find herself with a small case of insomnia.

She felt like she was supposed to _do_ something. Like she was forgetting something really important.

She looked towards the statue in the court yard, the man and women doing a pas de deux in the fountain.

A shadow moved in the yard and she jumped slightly, it was long since curfew.

'_Who...?_'

There was another movement and Elsie heard someone talking. She couldn't quite hear it but somehow her heart beat sped up at the sound of it.

She needed to go down there. Now.

She whipped around, not caring she was in her night wear she rushed out of the dorm room and straight out of the dormitory.

'_If I could help, I would do anything._' For some reason, over and over, it was all she could think until she reached the court yard.

It was empty.

And then a blue light engulfed the area.

Elsie could hear someone sobbing, _"P-please… help… I-I can't! I can't help her anymore! I have no hands to hold the shards! I cannot become one with anyone but her!"_ there was another broken sob, _"Onegai…"_

Elsie gulped and approached the sound of the voice, what she saw took her breath away.

At first, she wasn't sure if she was seeing a swan or a girl but finally she was able to see the girl.

She was beautiful.

Elsie had never in her life seen anyone more lovely. Her small frame shook as tears escaped her sparkling and kind blue eyes.

Elsie wanted nothing more than to take away the tears.

"Ano…"

The girl looked at her in surprise and shock, _"Y-you… you can see me?"_

Elsie nodded slowly; somehow unsurprised that she would ask a question like that, "H-hai…"

The girl rushed over do her, though desperate, each movement was extraordinarily graceful… they felt like they belonged in a ballet.

"_Onegai! You have to help her!"_ the girl was in front of her, her stance pleading.

"H-help… who?"

Sadness shook the girl's body again for a moment and finally she managed to give herself proper posture, _"Ahiru."_ If she were Ahiru… if Ahiru were here… she wouldn't give up. She would stand tall.

"_My name is Princess Tutu."_ She raised her hands above her head in a motion that Elsie knew meant dance, _"Would you be my hands?"_

Elsie took the hand presented her(despite not being able to hold it) and they began a pas de deux.

...

Kaethe clucked her tongue at the scene, she hadn't honestly expected it to work but it was infinitely amusing that it had.

"Sa… Drosselmeyer-kun… isn't it amusing?"

There was no response and she chuckled, as far as she knew Drosselmeyer was no longer a player in the game. Even if he was present, he wouldn't take much joy from her endeavors.

Her love was _chaos_, and though they could sometimes go hand-in-hand, chaos did not always agree with Drosselmeyer's love, _tragedy_.

Drosselmeyer was no longer a player though…

…right?

...

It was long past the time where they'd fallen asleep.

The fight had been long and hard but finally Mikhail had achieved victory.

Both the boys were happily sleeping.

Ahiru snuggled herself closer to the boy holding her, being in Fakir's arms…

…was warm.

Finally she closed her eyes and rested her head against his chest.

* * *

((Ending Notes: :3 Like? Dislike? Getting out your flame thrower?

Lol, X3 interesting twist, ne? This chappy was a lil hard to write(I kept getting stuck) but I somehow managed! :3

BTW, just so ya know, my minimum for chapters is seven pages(times new roman with 12) and my max is ten. Is that reasonable? I've been wondering if I should make my minimum eight chapters… XD

Mou! I know I've already done this in my earlier author note, but I feel really, truly happy! Thank you all for your wonderful and inspiring reviews! They help me improve my writing(a critique would help as well though) and they always put a large grin on my face. You guys are absolutely wonderful, I'm really grateful!

And to readers who do not review… I wuv you too!(though I would adore a review) I myself don't review often(yeah… I _really_ need to work on that) but I'm happy just thinking people are enjoying my writing.

When I was writing SasuHina(one of my OTP's) fics it was really easy to get reviews because everyone was really nice and close nit(everyone seemed to know everyone) and whereas you were more likely to get a few flames(not all are entirely fond of the crackiness of the pairing -.-') it was very nice and comforting to know that lots of people were reading it and many people liked it. It was an easy environment to improve your writing, I loved helping and watching people get better and becoming better myself. So I was worried when I started Princess Tutu fandom because I was very used to that security and having lots of friends who liked it as well.

Well, I've already made a few friends(you are all lovely and I adore you) and whereas it's not as easy to get reviews(SasuHina fandom, you get reviews sometimes within minutes) its very worth it for all your insightful opinions and kind words. I won't deny that I squeal every single time that I spot a review alert.

Okay, I think I've babbled aimlessly enough… lol XD Can I go on a random tangent or what?

I hope you all enjoyed reading the chapter!

-Muse-chan blushing in embarrassment at her long tangents.))


	8. Dokomade

((A/N: I'm a little unsatisfied with this chapter(I think I made them a lil too OOC) but I can't think of way to change it… -.-' I'm hopeless, ne? If anyone has any idea's on how I could improve the chapter, I'm all ears XD

I suppose this update makes it officially 'annual' to update on Friday's, being the second annual update and all(after all, there is no such thing as a first annual XD, lol)

I hope you all enjoy!

Muse-chan out!))

* * *

**Heartless**

_Dokomade_

_Mukashi, mukashi…_

_There was once an orphaned girl who did not fear death. Day after day fate would aim for her life, but not once did it succeed._

_But, despite not fearing death, death could never claim her life._

_Without a meaning to her life, she sought warmth in the libraries. Book after book but none gave meaning to her life and she ceased to care about having one. A reason to live would only make it harder when she died._

_On one cold night, she heard the sound of her parent's murderers…_

"_Caw, caw!"_

_Until morning, this was all she heard…_

_...  
_

It was a dark room. The curtains were sealed shut, the lights were left unused.

The room was a mess. Raven colored feathers were everywhere, the blankets hung in front of the windows. Furniture of all kinds were tossed about randomly. All was quiet though.

There was no commotion.

But it wasn't empty.

There were birds decorating the room, black and intimidating… but silent.

There was no cause for noise.

A boy sat among them on one of the torn apart cushions, eyes closed and breathing calm.

He sat among them, as if he were no different.

He opened bright purple eyes and glanced over the room.

He sat among them, as if… 'as if'…

He missed being one of them.

"I can't wait until we get back Princess Kraehe…"

A bird cawed nearby in agreement.

When they got back Princess Kraehe it could all go back to normal…

Drago glanced at the bird that had replied to him, "Ne… 'Cubie'…"

'Cubie' sent him a quizzical look.

"Remember what it was like in Dresdin… when we were kept away from Raven?"

Cubie didn't answer, he merely looked down.

Drago knew he remembered.

It was hard to forget such events.

And for Drago… it was hard to forget her voice.

...

It was Sunday. There would be no school.

Still, a single girl remained on campus sitting by the fountain in her uniform.

No need for character depth.

It's not hard to keep clean if you really tried.

Really, no need for character depth.

Even when you really don't have a roof over your head.

With a cheerful grin, she began writing.

...

Autor glared at the space before him with a vengeance. They were a half hour late.

An entire half hour late!

He'd been standing outside of the library since a quarter to ten, as agreed the previous night. It was irritating that he was the only one that thought it was important enough to show up on time.

Or perhaps he was the only one that realized an urgent and confusing fact.

Why is it that when Ahiru lost her heart, she didn't just become a heartless duck? It was beyond confusing. Last time she'd needed a heart shard to _become_ human, it really shouldn't work the other way around.

Heck, even if she did have a _single_ heart shard that somehow remained, it had taken her entire heart plus part of Mytho's last time.

It wouldn't do the same for a single shard.

But Ahiru was human and really, considering her earlier state of dress, there was really no way of hiding a shard somewhere on her. Unless of course it remained in her chest.

Mikhail jogged up and Autor sent him a disdainful glare, "Took you long enough."

Mikhail laughed nervously, "There was… a little trouble getting Fakir out of bed."

Autor raised an eyebrow but promptly decided he really, _really_ did not want to know.

"Well? Where's Fakir?"

Mikhail gave an aggravated sigh, "He made me go on ahead to tell you we were coming. He absolutely _refused_ to let Ahiru run, jog… or do anything above a painfully slow, overly cautious walk. Is he always like that?"

Autor shrugged, "I really wouldn't know… but I heard a lot of rumors about him and Mytho before Ahiru came."

Mikhail raised an eyebrow, "Rumors?"

"He wouldn't let anyone _near_ Mytho except for Rue and that in itself was rare." Autor scrunched his brow, "You think he's going to be that over protective with Ahiru?"

Mikhail groaned, "Judging from this morning? Without a doubt."

It was still quite the wait before Fakir and Ahiru appeared in the crowd. Fakir was glaring at anyone within three feet of them and clutching Ahiru's hand as if she were going to run away at any moment.

Both Autor and Mikhail shared a look. This was going to get old quickly.

...

It was a small, pathetic hope.

But for some reason, she was wishing that if she just stayed in the room and suppressed it all then it never happened.

She knew it happened.

Mikhail had come and _asked_ her about it!

But still, she instinctively suppressed it.

Because it made her feel like doing bad things whenever she thought about it. If she did bad things Mikhail would be disappointed in her.

'_Pappa! Don't be—_'

Heidi clutched her head.

It didn't matter what the ravens called her. Her name was Heidi! Not Kraehe!

It would never be Kraehe!

Tears formed in her eyes, if her name was Kraehe, Mikhail-niichan would hate her!

She didn't want to be hated…

"_Sleep… never awaken. You are my shame."_

She was not something to be ashamed of!

She would never be something to be ashamed of!

"I am not Kraehe!" her fingers dug at her skull, nails digging into the skin, "The rave— _crows_! The crows are wrong!"

She couldn't stop the tears.

"Th-they're wrong!" she muttered brokenly.

...

It was another forbidding silence.

Mikhail was realizing more and more that he hated this sort of silence.

Autor looked down, he'd made his point.

Ahiru was clueless as to the seriousness of the entire situation.

Fakir was clutching his hand into a tight ball and glaring at the table, whether he was infuriated at himself or the situation he didn't make clear.

But they had no way of finding out why Ahiru was human.

Autor suddenly sat straighter; "Drosselmeyer!" the other two jumped and looked at him. Ahiru was unaffected.

Fakir growled, "What about him?"

Autor winced a little at Fakir's tone, "You said the script for Drosselmeyer's story was in the tower… is it still there?"

"It should be…" Fakir's eyes widened as he followed Autor's train of thought.

The script would most certainly hold clues. It was everything Drosselmeyer had written since his death.

It could very possibly hold the answers they wanted.

Mikhail had realized this as well but remained silent. He had nothing to say really and his mind was elsewhere.

His mind was on the orange haired boy sitting at a table nearby.

He couldn't remember the boy's name but he did remember that he was in the ballet school… why was he even noticing the guy?

Something seemed… familiar about him…

…but what?

"Mikhail?"

Mikhal jumped and paid attention to the conversation at hand, "What?"

Autor was giving him a look, "We're going to the tower… are you coming?"

'_No, I want to go stalk that familiar looking guy because he's creeping me out and he seems oddly familiar but I can't think of how and I just _know_ I've seen him before and that I owe him a beating._'

Mikhail refrained from saying this.

It was ridiculous to begin with.

Mikhail sighed and tore his thoughts forcibly away from the suspicious boy. He already had other plans.

"No, I have to visit Heidi. Even if she doesn't remember what happened I'm still a little worried."

Autor nodded in understanding and went to follow Fakir who had already begun to escort Ahiru out.

Mikhail certainly did not envy Autor. Dealing with Fakir and Ahiru when Fakir was being _that_ over protective…? Mikhail gave Autor a pitying glance.

...

It was absolutely miserable.

It was a long, tiresome walk to their destination. Fakir would hardly along Ahiru a single movement other than ones he directly ordered her to do.

Like she was going to disappear or something! Autor rolled his eyes, Ahiru happened to be quite good at taking orders while heartless so what was the _point_ of being so— so!

"Gah!" Autor had had it, "Would you stop being such a controlling freak?"

Fakir sent him a startled look.

"Listen, I realize you're used to ordering around Mytho and that this isn't a very different situation but it's not like she's going to vanish the second you look away!"

Fakir stood very still. His eyes wide and shock playing on his features.

Had he… had he fallen back into his old self without even realizing it?

He didn't have time to ponder it.

"Where'd Ahiru go?"

Fakir was completely alert within seconds, searching every inch of the area— there! He glared at the end of her braid disappearing into a building and rushed after her.

Autor followed without thinking.

Up endless flights of stairs and still Ahiru was just barely out of sight.

Fakir hadn't the time or mind to pay attention to where they were, there were more important matters.

"Ahiru!"

She'd stopped.

Fakir finally took in his surroundings.

Ahiru was standing in front of a broken contraption.

Drosselmeyer's machine.

Fakir's eyes immediately darted to the tall stack of paper…

It wasn't there.

Autor caught up, panting slightly due to the flights of stairs but Fakir paid no mind.

Drosselmeyer's story was gone. Someone had taken it.

...

She stared at her surroundings with mild wonder. She knew where she was.

Hopping to her feet she looked around quickly for the missing accessory that could usually be found in her small hands.

Her drum stick was a few feet away.

"Ohhh!" she hobbled over to it with wonder, "I'm back-zura!"

* * *

((Ending Notes: Mwahahaha! A cookie to whoever can put together the horribly obvious hints!

I'll give you one more; it starts with a 'U'.

XD See you around-zura!

PS 'Dresdin' is a city in Germony… I think(my older sis said so but she's been known to mess with my head) I should probably do some research on it but I don't particularly have the time right now, so I'm just using it. If anyone has reason that I shouldn't use it please inform me ASAP(I don't like having plot holes…)

PPS There'll be more FakirxAhiru in the next chappy! Sorry that there hasn't been much…(I've been attempting to set up the plot firmly first)

-Muse-chan getting yelled at to study.))


	9. Samashite

((A/N: Alright… -drum roll- for those who guessed it…

Yes! The secret character is… Barney! XD

Barney: Hiya kids! Would you like to come play?

Pique: -skeptical- I dunno… who are you exactly…? And why are your teeth so sharp…?

Barney: To eat childre— I mean, I have candy!

Lillie: Yay! Candy! Come on Pique!

Pique: …sure, okay… -smiles- I do love candy!

Barney: Just follow me! –turns around and cackles- _To your doom!_

Pique: What was that?

Barney: Ah… nothing! Nothing at all… come children… remember… _candy_!

Pique & Lillie: Yay!

XD lol, I couldn't resist! Don't hurt me!

So here is da long awaited update! Yay! I was happy to read everyone's wonderful reviews! They made me smile and even blush at times X3 I hope you all enjoy the chapter!

Muse-chan out!))

* * *

**Heartless**

_Samashite_

_Mukashi, mukashi…_

_There was once a princess whom no one loved, for she was ugly. Day after day she would hear the scoffing scorn of those she loved…_

_Finally her father, the king, banished her to an eternal slumber beneath a lake._

"_Why?" she had asked, while she pleaded for her life._

"_You are my shame." Her father had replied and sealed her away._

_Months passed, almost a year, before there was a shining light. The princess opened her eyes and saw a gorgeous maiden._

'_Who are you?' she wanted to ask._

_The maiden answered her unspoken question with a smile, "Child, why are you in such a place?"_

'_Because I am ugly.' Somehow, the princess could not bring herself to speak it aloud though._

_The maiden looked concerned, "But you are beautiful, don't you see?"_

_The young princess shook her head bitterly and the maiden gave a sad smile._

"_Little princess, you are beautiful and no one should tell you otherwise. Princess… would you like to go to the surface?" the maiden asked._

_She shook her head, 'No… they will mock and scorn me. I am shameful.'_

_The maiden paused, only for a moment, before reaching out to the girl, "Princess, would you like to dance?"_

_...  
_

Freya turned around, confusion masking her expression.

She could have sworn she just saw…

She smiled lightly and shook her head, it was beyond unlikely. She shouldn't think on it too much.

She wasn't the type to put too much thought into matters. She knew what she knew and there was little point in her investigating the unknown…

…still…

"Kaethe…"

There was a small red light and in that instant, Freya wanted to know who she saw was.

The questions would not cease.

...

He rolled his eyes and tapped his foot impatiently, "Fakir."

Fakir glowered and didn't respond.

Mikhail let out a groan, "You can't stay in here all day."

Fakir still refrained from dignifying Mikhail's words with an answer.

"You can't make her stay in here alone either. You have to get her enrolled."

Fakir made a disgruntled annoyed sound.

Mikhail let out another groan of defeat, "You can keep a watch on her if you enroll her in the same classes."

The ex-knight almost seemed interested before he merely began to glower again.

"Damnit! Ahiru! You talk to him!" Mikhail froze, realizing his mistake.

When Ahiru was a duck, saying something like that when Fakir was being frustrating was normal. Ahiru would proceed to quack at and/or bite Fakir into submission.

It was an amusing sight.

Nothing like that would happen right now though.

"About what?" Mikhail cringed at her emotionless voice and snuck a glance at Fakir.

Bangs covering his eyes, Fakir stood just a little too stiffly. Mikhail honestly expected to get punched again.

"Ahiru, go take a bath."

Ahiru nodded and went into the bathroom without qualms.

There was another of the silences that Mikhail despised so much before Fakir spoke again but he was staring at the wall.

Mikhail dreaded his expression.

"Go to class. I'm not going today; I'll have her enrolled by tomorrow."

Mikhail nodded and swiftly picked up his duffel bag with his fencing gear, deciding that he _really_ didn't want to come back here in an hour to pick it up.

In his opinion, Fakir would need much longer to calm down.

...

Kaethe was grinning wickedly at the paper before her, from her spot in the bushes the scene was playing _beautifully_.

"What are you doing-zura?"

Kaethe blinked in surprise and looked at whoever had caught her.

It was a toddler…

No… Kaethe blinked again and looked closer, she was a puppet.

"I'm creating chaos." She answered easily, falling back into her normal mischievous expression.

"Ohhh!" it was Uzura's turn to blink, "What's chaos-zura?"

The beautiful idea that sprang to Kaethe's mind made her bristle with joy.

"Well… I think it'd be best if I showed you…" glancing down at what she wrote for a moment she smiled with glee, "Could you go over to those three," she gestured vaguely to the group of people she had been watching earlier, "And say…" she leaned forward to whisper.

Uzura's eyes widened, "Ohh! Love, love-zura!"

And, beating on her drum, she made her way to the group of three.

Sometimes, Kaethe smirked; it all just fell together perfectly.

"This is the beginning of a _beautiful_ friendship." She decided.

...

The ravens scattered, they didn't dare to surround him. It would give them away in an instant.

Drago didn't mind nor care.

But he did send a mocking smirk to the group of ravens just ahead.

They were from a different group.

They were different.

They had been trapped in Kinkan for years while the Monster Raven ordered them about.

Drago was different.

He was from a different group.

He had been sealed outside of Kinkan. He was a survivor from the outside.

He always felt a certain amount of animosity for the ravens that had been safe within Kinkan, trapped, but safe.

They didn't know the fear of being locked out.

He remembered when the Monster Raven had escaped from the story and they had all been drafted for his army. He remembered being sent to Dresdin to attack.

He remembered hearing from his companions that they couldn't get back into Kinkan.

What was happening?

Word spread of the Monster Raven being sealed.

What were they supposed to do? Their last order was to attack, so that was all they knew to do.

But quite a bit of them didn't care to.

The humans couldn't discriminate which raven was which though. They retaliated to any raven they could.

There was never a lack for dead ravens. There was never a lack for dead humans.

Two years. It had been two years since they'd left Dresdin to find a way into Kinkan. But they only managed it a few months earlier.

But they couldn't get out.

"_Dance!"_ he remembered a cackling voice telling them, _"Dance your way into the perfect tragedy!"_

So they had.

It was probably why he hated ballet so much, dance after forced dance for a cause he couldn't care less about.

The Monster Raven had been destroyed though and his mortal enemy had left back to the fairytale he came from.

The ravens that had stood by the Monster Raven's side for so many years had been infuriated.

The ravens that had returned from their unorthodox exile were apathetic.

But they still followed the Monster Raven's last orders.

"_Find her… find Princess Kraehe. My hideous, hideous daughter."_

Even though he had disowned her and sent her to an eternal slumber, she was still his only heir.

When he first realized he still needed an heir, he'd found that she wasn't sealed where he'd left her. So he'd kidnapped a baby to take her place.

Drago knew little of this. It was after he'd left. After he'd been locked out.

What, he wondered, would have happened if he'd stayed in Dresdin like some of the others? Stayed with…

He glared ahead, he would not think of it.

But she was the reason he'd volunteered for the odious job he was now fulfilling. The reason he was left in this false form.

...

Elsie yawned loudly; she had a wonderful dream the night before.

She smiled, '_A pas de deux in the night with a beautiful ghostly ballerina…_' she giggled, 'would you be my hands'? The entire dream had been ridiculous and cheesy but in a majestic way that left butterflies in her stomach and a blush on her cheeks.

"_Ohayo…"_

Elsie jumped out of her skin at the voice, turning slowly she was met with the ghostly figure of a beautiful ballerina.

She suddenly felt faint.

'_It wasn't a dream!_'

...

"So… you're the spirit of this 'Princess Tutu'?" she was walking to class, Tutu was gliding beside her.

She nodded elegantly, _"Hai…"_

"…and you want me to be your hands so you can rescue this… Ahiru girl?"

Tutu was starting to look nervous, the way Elsie phrased it was starting to sound skeptical… if Elsie refused to help; she would have no way of saving Ahiru.

Elsie smiled at her, "It sounds wonderful! What do I have to do?"

Tutu resisted the relieved sigh and smiled at Elsie, _"I need you to let me use your hands… Ahiru's heart was shattered and I need to collect the pieces but I can't hold onto them to give them back to her."_

"Ah…" Elsie was starting to grow excited, it was farfetched, yes, but wasn't seeing and walking with a ghost just as farfetched? She had no reason to doubt Princess Tutu.

She paused with a thoughtful expression, "Is it alright if I call you Tutu-chan?"

Tutu blinked, taken aback, _"I… I suppose."_ Her cheeks turned slightly pink, _"Should I call you Elsie-chan then?"_

Elsie was obviously pleased, "Hai!"

There was a comfortable silence as they continued their walk before Elsie asked the dreaded question…

"So… how are we going to find these shards?"

Tutu paused herself, _"I know where one is… we can use it to resonate with the others."_

"Heart shards resonate with each other?"

"_Yes… that's how I found the Prince's heart…"_

Now Elsie was confused.

"The Prince? Who is he?"

Tutu looked ahead of them and gave Elsie an apologetic smile, _"That is a story for some other time. Now you'll need to go to class."_

Elsie's eyes widened and she whirled around to find them in front of the ballet building.

'_I'm gonna be late!_' she gave Tutu a thankful grin before rushing off, paying no mind as Tutu followed.

...

Fakir glanced at the stationary girl and sighed, heartless or not, she was bound to get bored. He'd need to get her something to read…

…but he _really_ didn't want to leave her alone. _Especially_ after what happened earlier.

He found, that while Mytho had retained his will to protect things even without his heart, Ahiru managed to retain her clumsiness.

Which was why, to his horror, after five minutes of waiting for her to bathe he had heard a rather loud crash and rushed into the room.

His face flushed at the thought and he forcefully pushed his thoughts away to something less…

He blushed again.

But, the situation had proved that it was not safe to leave Ahiru alone. Nope. She was certain to get herself killed with her antics.

He did have some books in the dorm but he didn't think Ahiru would like any of them.

'_Maybe Mikhail has some…?_' he narrowed his eyes at Mikhail's half of the room, searching for something Ahiru would like.

It didn't occur to him that as long as she was emotionless, it really wouldn't matter…

He got up and began to ransack the room, not caring what Mikhail would think when he got back.

It was some time before he noticed Ahiru had gotten up and was sitting by the now _open_ window.

Oh how that window had bad memories.

"Ahiru!"

But she paid him no mind and continued to sit; he was beginning to rush over when he heard a chirp.

She was holding a bird.

Some more birds fluttered to her and she paid each them mind, inquiring about their health.

But there was no affection in her voice.

In a way, it was beautiful to see Ahiru surrounded by birds and talking to them each softly.

In another way, it was horribly sad to see how put out the animals were when they saw her lack of emotion.

Fakir wasn't the only one suffering at the loss of Ahiru's heart.

One by one, the birds bid their farewells and Ahiru remained sitting on the sill for a moment before standing and walking over to Fakir.

He blinked, "Wha—" he was cut off by arms wrapping around him. His eyes widened and he began to blush.

"Warm…" she muttered, "Fakir is so warm…"

Fakir didn't let himself be put out by her toneless voice and wrapped his own arms around her, "Ahiru…"

* * *

((Ending Notes: Mou! I don't like how the chappy turned out… it seems confusing… -.-' aw well, you live, you learn XD

Lol, so I'm curious, does anyone have a fav character in the fic thus far?

So… I had something else I wanted to mention here but I am completely forgetting! -.-' XD I'm such a ditz!

…wait a minute! Ah-ha! I recall! X3 lol.

Anywho, Fish Head The 3rd and Co are going to Anime Expo this year and we are gonna make two Princess Tutu doujinshi's to sell at Artists Alley!(and over the internet later if we have left-overs)

So here lies the problem, we are making several different doujin's from several different anime's so we can only make two Princess Tutu doujins _but_ we have lotsa ideas! T.T

X3 I was hoping you guys could help us by telling me which ideas you like best!

**Madness & Love**

-FakirxAhiru. Ahiru is cross-dressing to attend an all boys academy that schools Mytho, a model. However, despite Lillie's meddling, she isn't able to be Mytho's roommate. Instead she's stuck with Mytho's glowering best friend. How will she be able to hide her gender? :3

**Samurai no Baka**

-FakirxAhiru :3 Fakir is a wandering samurai with the goal of becoming stronger. Ahiru is a klutzy ninja trying to find her way to Edo. Will they manage to work together when certain doom threatens Kyoto and the empire? Drosselmeyer ish evil goodness.

**Confusion & Distain**

-FakirxAhiru. Ahiru, a clumsy Jr. High student, finds a mysterious red stone. After touching it, she finds herself on top of a lake with invisible chains making her dance. Why does everyone call her Princess Tutu? Who is the cackling voice that tells her to dance? Where is she? And how does Fakir fit in this story? :3 Well… you'll have to read to find out! XD

**Whispers**

-FakirxAhiru. Ever since that night she has been haunted by dreams of a hand offering her a pendant. Who is the new student that keeps glaring at her? In lamens terms… Ahiru's the descendant of one 'Princess Tutu' and Fakir is the demon who murdered Tutu, now cursed to protect her descendants.

**Accidentally**

-MythoxLillie(yes, we ship it XD). In all his days he had never met someone quite like her… after all, not many peasants had the guts to push a prince down a hill and then exclaim that he looked adorable when he was in pain. Yes, she certainly was… unique.

**Fairytale**

-FakirxAhiru. Let's take lil red riding hood and add a twist. What if the grouchy wolf wasn't interested in eating grandma? What if lil red didn't _have_ a grandma? And what? Lil Red is a runaway princess with amnesia? :3 The grouchy wolf wont take that curve ball well…

**Cursed**

AutorxRue. Kraehe is the daughter of a great sorcerer who wishes to take over the world, though she may not feel it is right with her fathers promises of true happiness she does all she can. But one day she failed to follow orders, unwilling to murder the children before her. Enraged by his daughters failure, he cursed her to spend the rest of her days as a black cat, Cackling, he added a spice to the curse that she could never be able to get. _"You must fall in love and be loved in return if you ever wish to be human again."_ Who would love a cat? Caught in despair she gets lost and injured, only to be nursed to health by a traveling writer… _"I think I'll call you… Rue. Yes, it definitely suits you."_

(whew that was long XD)

**Smile**

-FakirxAhiru. Pre-series. One day while searching for the ever elusive Mytho(he just knew that it was that Rue-menace again!) Fakir runs into a cheerful little girl. _"Smile! You look so grim!"_ For once, he didn't mind being distracted from the task at hand to much.

XD lol, sooooo help us out here and tell me what you'd most like to see! :3 I have to finish the scripts for 'em soon(deadlines) so I need to know which ones I'm working on!

Have a wonderful day!

-Muse-chan munching on Cheezits.))


	10. Nagare

((A/N: Ack! I mean to pdate earlier today but lotsa stuff happened and… T.T Mou… Gomen mina-san!

Thank you all so much for voting in the last chapter! It was really helpful! The second one hasn't been completely decided, but it's almost positive we're gonna do 'Madness & Love' XD

XD I hope you all enjoy reading!

Muse-chan out!))

* * *

**Heartless**

_Nagare_

_Mukashi, mukashi…_

_There was once a girl with no home._

_She wondered endlessly with nowhere to rest._

_One day she heard that a prince was holding a ball, curious about it she wished desperately that she could go._

_But no one would let a girl dressed in rags into the beautiful ballroom._

_Without any way for her wish to be fulfilled in time for the ball, the girl sat by a pond and questioned the water._

"_What should I do?"_

_But the water would not answer._

_The girl was left without hope and she was unable to attend the ball._

"_What should I do?" she murmured to herself._

_It would be impossible to make her pretty in time for the ball…_

_But perhaps she could make herself clean in time for the next ball…?_

_...  
_

The lunch bell rang.

Kaethe was satisfied with her work thus far for the day, three people had asked which course she was in(they all got different answers, she couldn't _wait_ for people to realize she wasn't even enrolled. Oh, the sweet chaos), she'd written four stories(all with hilarious endings and with the help of her new found little friend), and to top it all off she'd even managed to find herself some food.

Food was precious. It was one of her few pet-peeves to watch people throw away perfectly good food.

Ah, but she didn't have pet-peeves. She had no character development.

She couldn't _afford_ character development. Not in this town.

She was Kaethe. She liked chaos.

That was all there was to know.

She had no age.

She smiled gleefully as she trotted through the hall, paying mild attention to the students as they passed…

Sea green eyes met malicious purple.

Time seemed to freeze for Kaethe. It was hard to breathe.

The other people didn't matter anymore.

The purple eyes widened and Kaethe was surprised to see the owner…

…was human…

'_No._' her jaw clenched, '_No, he's not._'

"Drago…"

She couldn't stop the words before they tumbled out of her mouth.

He seemed to snap out of the daze and began to pass her.

_Ravens minded their business and she minded hers._

That old chant.

She couldn't say anything.

He was almost past her.

"'Fruity' mentioned something about seeing you."

The names a seven year old comes up with.

She nodded and continued walking.

_Ravens mind their business and she minded hers!_

"Ah, tell him I said hi." Those were her last words to him before they passed each other entirely.

She collapsed when they were completely out of sight of each other.

Drago was in a human form.

...

Neko-sensei was disturbed.

Not only had Elsie, one of his best students, and a quite punctual one, arrived late _twice_ in a row now but this time she was acting extraordinarily odd.

Like when one of her classmates tried to sit next to her she shooed them away saying the seat was taken. Considering how friendly she normally was, it was… troubling.

And she seemed to have taken to talking to herself. She was very good at keeping it quiet, so quiet that her classmates wouldn't notice, but she couldn't hide her lips moving.

And then, to Neko-sensei's surprise and even more troubling thoughts, Freya, who was usually very silent and paid plenty of attention, was asking questions every few seconds. Not just on how something was done or what it was but she would ask _why_ it was even done that way!

To top it all off, Fakir was absent.

It was going to be a long, deflating day. Of this much Neko-sensei was positive.

...

Jaegar sent another glance at Elsie.

She was definitely acting strangely.

It didn't matter to him in the least how inquisitive Freya was being, in his opinion it was probably something to do with her home life. But Elsie…

…was _talking_ to herself.

Unless the girl had gone completely insane, Jaegar was positive she had an imaginary friend.

It wouldn't normally matter to him whether or not someone had a little imaginary friend. That their mental illness. None of his business.

_But_ considering a heart had shattered just a day earlier…

'_Could she be possessed by a heart shard?_'

He would look into it later.

For now his thoughts rested on another matter.

Fakir played hooky.

It was none of his business, yes, but it was possibly the _only_ interesting thing about class to annoy the overly stiff male.

Now the guy had taken away his amusement…

...

He'd lied.

He glared at the bustling girls setting up for a dress rehearsal.

Fruity said no such thing. Like he would even if he saw her.

Fruity had always had a sort of twisted sense of humor. He would find it infinitely amusing to see what would happen if he said nothing.

Kaethe knew this.

She could see through his lie easily.

Would she try to?

What was she even _doing_ in Kinkan?

It was infuriating.

She should still be in Dresdin, the same as always. Still visiting the libraries. Still talking to the remaining ravens…

Why was she in _Kinkan_?

He had to take a calming breath when he was called on stage for his part of the dress rehearsal. It wouldn't do to show the bumbling females how entirely upset he was.

Angry. He was angry. Not upset.

Angry at what…?

...

"Love, love-zura!" Uzura skipped happily around campus. Kaethe was right, whatever this 'chaos' was, it was fun!

Especially how red people's faces would turn!

Uzura beat on her drum and looked about, "Ohh?" she blinked, "Where's Kaethe-zura?" she ran off, still beating on her drum, in a hurry to find the girl.

Mikhail stared after the small puppet with a certain amount of shock.

...

Elsie smiled at Tutu while they walked to the gates, according to the dancing girl the heart shard could be found at the bottom of a lake just outside of town.

It was long after classes, they would have left sooner but she had to stay after class to have a rather long talk with Neko-sensei(she shivered at the memory).

"So… what's this Ahiru girl like?"

"_Duck."_ Princess Tutu corrected.

Elsie scrunched her brows, "Eh?"

"_Ahiru is a duck."_

Well, it wasn't that surprising considering her name literally _meant_ duck, but the way Tutu had talked about her earlier really made her sound like a girl.

"Really? So what's she like?"

Tutu smiled fondly, _"Clumsy. Very clumsy."_ She paused a moment for thought, _"But very sweet. She was always thinking of how she could help the Prince and…"_ a light blush dusted Tutu's cheeks and she stopped speaking.

"And…?" Elsie was interested; it was odd to see Tutu blush. She was so elegant and calm that it almost seemed out of character.

The look in Tutu's was one of someone who wanted to get out of saying what they knew they'd be forced to, a glance at Elsie's prying expression and she sighed in defeat, _"And… the Knight."_

"The Knight?" Tutu nodded and Elsie's curiosity grew, she'd heard an abridged version of Princess Tutu collecting the Prince's heart from the princess herself but she hadn't heard anything about a knight.

Tutu attempted to suppress her blush without results and spoke, _"He… was also trying to protect the Prince. At first, he wouldn't accept my—our help but eventually he allowed Ahiru and me to save the Prince. He was… very supportive."_

Elsie nodded; taking note that Tutu seemed to be leaving out quite a bit, "Ne… you said you and Ahiru helped the Prince together… as one or something like that… so you were in duck form or something?"

Tutu chuckled and shook her head, _"No… Ahiru became human to save the Prince."_

It came out before she thought of any of the consequences it might have, "Did she love him?"

Tutu paused slightly before answering, _"…in a way."_

Elsie didn't press further.

It wasn't much longer before they arrived at the gate. Elsie moved to open it but Tutu stopped her.

"_It won't open… will you wait here for me?"_ Elsie nodded but seemed worried, something about leaving Tutu alone made her feel uneasy.

...

She clenched her eyes shut, no! She didn't have character depth! Not in this town!

Not where it would cost her life!

Kaethe. Her name was Kaethe. She loved chaos because it scared her when things stopped movin—

'_No!_'

She had no fears! She was a shallow character!

There was a moment of silence before she heard a slow chuckle.

That was it.

He knew she had a personality.

He would try to control her.

It was a fight now…

"…ne, Drosselmyer-kun."

* * *

Fakir glared darkly at Muse-chan, "I've hardly appeared at all in this chapter! And you haven't even taken the first step to fix Ahiru!"

Musette chuckled nervously, "_A-actually_, you haven't appeared at all…" she laughed again, this time it sounded a bit too high pitched, "F-funny, ne?"

The glint of Fakir's blade was her first sign to run.

"I'm sorry! I'll fix Ahiru-chan soon! I'm too evil to die! WAAAAAH!"

((Ending Notes: XD Fun stuff, ne?

_Anywho_, to some of my fantastic anonymous reviewers(I love just as much as my other reviewers) I have some replies that must give!

Duo: Thank you very much for the suggestion! :3

notanothercircle: XD lol 'I find this 'Fish Head The 3rd & Co.' X3 lol, fate! It _must_ be fate! XD lol, funny story, that's happened to me once before as well XD Thank you very much for complimenting my story! I'm really happy you like it so much! I looked at your dA account! XD I love your art style! Kawaii! :3 draw stuff for us? Really? –star eyes- sugoi!

Willa: I understand how confusing I can get -.-' I'm horrible with description… so! XD

OC's:

Name: Mikhail

Age: 17

Class: Fencing

Hair: Red

Eye: Blue

Name: Kaethe

Age: 12

Class: None :3

Hair: Purple

Eye: Green

Name: Jaegar

Age: 16

Class: Ballet

Hair: Orange

Eye: Yellow

Name: Heidi

Age: 14

Class: Ballet

Hair: Black

Eye: Red

Name: Drago

Age: 14

Class: Drama

Hair: Black

Eye: Purple

I probably missed someone XD lol. Ah well. I hope this was informative…

Kya! Guess what!

I have drawn the 'Heartless' crew! :3 Check it out! It should be in my scraps on my deviantART account!

Muse-chan avoiding homework.))


	11. Yasashiku

((A/N: Oh my god! I am so sorry guys! I got so caught up in finals I seriously forgot to update! T.T! Gomen!

…I'm so sorry! I feel horrible, is there any way I can make it up to you guys? T.T

-Muse-chan out…))

* * *

**Heartless**

_Yasashiku_

_Mukashi, mukashi…_

_There was once a little girl who loved to play in the pond by her house. Day after day she'd go there to get wet and chase frogs._

_Her mother would scold her; tell her that one day she herself would turn into a frog if she continued._

_One day she came home with a cold. Her parents fretted and worried, wishing they'd restrained her from going to the pond so often. As time went by her cold only got worse. The parents were left helpless and terrified._

_They called for a doctor, but he could do nothing for the girl. She would die in a roughly a weeks time._

_Her parents cried and so did she, for she wanted to return to the lake at least one more time. She was always happiest playing there. But her parents forbid it, they would not lose another moment with their precious daughter._

_In her misery, she snuck out once when her mother was away, on her way to the lake she bumped into a man._

"_Who are you?" she asked._

_The man only smiled widely, showing his purely white grin in an almost cruel smile…_

_In a week's time, the girl died just as the doctor had predicted. Her parents wept and buried her body…_

_...  
_

She was lost. She'd swear she could hear the cackling. She was confused.

Why?

Memories flooded her brain.

It made no sense.

_Why_?

How?

How did it come to be like this? It wasn't supposed to be like…

…to be like…

She could still hear the cackling.

...

_Dirty._

_She was in rags. Her clothes had long since been torn to bits and she was covered in dirt and cuts._

_Her parents were dead._

_It wasn't unnatural, nowadays, to see a child in her state. Nor was it odd for them to have no home or food._

_People were dying left and right. The ravens were strategizing and attacking wherever they could. Dresdin was in ruins._

_Five years old and the sole survivor of the attack on her home, she stared out of the alleyway. The ravens drove people out of their homes. Even if you managed to survive an attack, the ravens would lay in wait at the house for weeks, sometimes months, afterwards._

_She didn't fear death._

_It was just something that happened. Her parents had died. It happened. It was over._

_The fact that she lived was just something that happened._

_It didn't matter._

_It had been two weeks since her parent's death._

_She was cold; it was still spring and the mornings held a chill. Everyday held some inconvenience or another._

_She knew the library was warm though. But they wouldn't let her in. She was dirty and she had no shoes._

_She heard a feral growl and jumped a little._

_It was all the dog needed as a sign to attack._

_...  
_

It had been a half hour and still no sign of Tutu, Elsie was beginning to worry more and more.

"Tutu-chan?" she called, hoping for a response.

She was not rewarded.

She frowned at the gate, if it would only _open_! Just for a moment! She could see if Tutu was alright or not!

She didn't hear the quill scratching against paper.

This part of the story was already written after all.

She lifted her fist to pound on the gate but found there was nothing solid to bash against. She over balanced and fell forward.

"Kya!" she slammed her eyes shut and hit the ground painfully.

She blinked and stood. It felt like she fell through water… She looked about and realized she was on the other side of the gate.

"Eh…?" one of her arms dropped to her side in surprise and she was startled by a softer fabric than her school uniform.

'_A tutu…_' she shook her head and didn't even bother to look over what she might be wearing, instead she began to run towards the lake.

How did she know where the lake was?

She glimpsed her clothes as she ran and was lightly surprised to find that she _was_ still in her uniform.

'_Odd… I could have sworn…_' she shook it off, she needed to find Tutu!

What she saw when she reached the edge of it took her breath away.

It was downright magical looking. Elsie mentally reprimanded herself on thinking something so bland to explain the gorgeous sight in front of her.

Princess Tutu curtsied at her partner and not for the first time Elsie was struck with how truly beautiful the princess was.

Her partner, a red girl, smiled abashedly and attempted a clumsy curtsy with a blush.

'_Ah, she must be Ahiru._'

"_Will you help us find the other shards?"_ Princess Tutu asked softly.

Ahiru's shard nodded and Tutu danced over to where Elsie stood, still struck by the sight.

"_Thank you."_ was all the shard said before she disappeared with a sprinkling red light that danced to where Elsie and Tutu's hands were joined.

The red jewel Elsie now peered at was breath-taking.

"I-it's warm." Elsie said with slight surprise.

Tutu nodded in agreement, _"Wear this as a necklace. Both she and I will help in any way we can but in the end she is only a way of detection and I am only a ghost. You will have to do quite a bit on your own…"_

Elsie smiled with determination, "I won't back out. Not when I can finally help someone." Her smile softened, "Besides… I really would like to see you smile."

Tutu was taken aback, _"I have smiled, haven't I?"_

Elsie shook her head, "You have… but anyone can see sadness etched in your soul. I want to make you truly, honestly and totally happy, if only for a moment."

Tutu looked down, a blush dusting her cheeks, _"Thank you…"_

_...  
_

It was getting late.

Mikhail sighed and glanced at Ahiru again, Fakir had left an hour ago to get her enrolled with the strict orders(and slight threat) to make sure Ahiru was absolutely safe.

'_Yep… he's head over heels._' He stopped thinking for a moment and snickered at the mental image of Fakir in high heels, '_Now that would be the day._'

He would do more interesting things then sit with her silently, but after last times screw up he didn't want to risk her getting injured(he still blamed himself quite a bit for her losing her heart to begin with) and he'd already tried several times to start a conversation but she wasn't exactly inclined to say much more than 'probably'.

"Well… at least I don't have to worry about her flying bird kicks of rage…"

...

Kaethe bashed her head against the tree behind her.

She was losing it.

She was losing control.

She fisted some grass and pulled it straight out of the ground before ripping it ruthlessly to shreds with her nails. She repeated until her fingers bled.

Why was Drago _here_?

The others were as well, if what Drago said held any truth.

She curled up, the darkening forest she sat in only serving to cause her more pain.

It wasn't anything like Dresdin. Not where she lived at least.

She clenched her fist, ignoring the blood that began to slip past her fingers.

...

_Food._

_She was going to be eaten._

_The dog dragged her out of the alleyway by her now shredded arm. She knew where it was taking her, to its pups. She'd seen the wolf prowling the area before, often, scrounging for food._

_It was raining._

_She didn't know when it started raining._

_A cawing sound was heard and the wolf visibly panicked, increasing its pace._

_She lost consciousness, for how long, she didn't know, but it felt like a few seconds._

_When she woke up the wolf was gone but the stinging sensation in her arm wouldn't fade for quite some time._

'_I'm alive again…'_

_Again, she'd survived certain death._

_Why was she alive, when she didn't fear death in the least, and others like her parents who were clinging desperately to their lives were unable to survive?_

_She couldn't think of an answer so she didn't bother to._

_She heard the sound of a crow and opened her eyes again, wondering when they had closed, in front of her, on a fence, four to five ravens were lined up._

_Two, she managed to note through the blur in her senses, had flown down and were now picking at her mutilated arm._

_Ah, so she would be food anyway._

_Her eyes caught purple ones on the fence._

'_What… pretty eyes…'_

_She couldn't help the thought. They truly were beautiful eyes._

_Did anyone notice it but her? She had to wonder as her own eyes flickered to another pair of eyes. These were crimson._

_They were also beautiful._

_Did anyone notice, she wondered even further, how beautiful the ravens' eyes were?_

_Coal black eyes were another pair she noticed._

_She didn't notice when the two stopped picking at her arm._

_She was entranced by the beautiful eyes._

_...  
_

Heidi had a hard time smiling.

Plenty of people noticed this, but they merely thought of her as a reproachful person because of it.

It wasn't true.

But how were they supposed to know?

Heidi sighed as she stared out into the night, hours after she'd come back from classes…

…still no one would talk to her.

She heard the whispers. They claimed she was terrifying with her constantly serious face and intimidating red eyes.

She couldn't help her eyes. She was born with them.

She couldn't help her frown… she'd tried.

She could recall spending hours as a child standing in front of a mirror and attempting to grin.

Mikhail-niichan was always so happy when she smiled. He didn't look disappointed at all.

But she couldn't smile.

No matter how hard she tried it always ended up looking awkward. Some had said she looked scarier when she smiled.

She could smirk though. Those always came easily. But smirking wouldn't make her look more approachable.

She sighed and turned to go to bed. She had another day to face tomorrow.

...

Fakir growled and slammed the door behind him; Mikhail glanced up at him and raised an eyebrow.

"I _hate_ the enrollment process." Fakir grunted, sitting on one of the chairs gruffly.

Mikhail's eyebrow lifted higher, "Was it really _that_ miserable?"

Fakir glared at him, "I spent most of my time in the line to _get in_ line. Yes. It was _that_ miserable."

Mikhail shrugged indifferently, "But she's enrolled, right? With her own dorm room and everything?"

"Why would she need her own dorm?"

Mikhail wanted to murder Fakir.

"She's a _girl_ Fakir; she's going to need her _space_… for girly things or whatever!" Fakir remained unconvinced, "I've lived with a girl before Fakir! It's miserable! _Miserable_! I never want to do it again!"

It took a moment for Fakir to recall that Mikhail had a little sister, "She's _not_ going to live alone though, she's too clumsy," Fakir almost expected her to hit him for the remark but she didn't react, "And besides, even if she had a roommate, don't you think they'd get suspicious?"

Mikhail's eyebrow twitched, "Don't _you_ think it would be suspicious for her to be leaving the _boys_ dorm every morning?"

This argument seemed to almost reach Fakir but he shook it off, "Where _else_ is she supposed to stay?"

'_I dunno… a girls dorm room?_' Mikhail sighed; he wasn't going to win by pushing for Ahiru to get her own dorm…

"Ah! What about your foster father?"

"Charon?" Fakir seemed to actually think this option over but he still seemed hesitant.

Mikhail knew why.

"You just want to keep an eye on her yourself, right?"

Fakir was silent.

Mikhail groaned, mentally hoping he never fell in love. He didn't quite like the idea of becoming this much of a moron.

"Listen, Fakir, it's not like she's going to be in mortal danger every single time she's out of sight."

Fakir let out a disgruntled noise and looked away, obviously unable to think of a comeback. It was here that Ahiru piped up.

Well… it was here that she made a small quacking noise.

Both boys turned with a slight start. Ahiru was sitting on the floor looking ever so slightly disgruntled.

She'd fallen off the bed.

Mikhail restrained from laughing as Fakir rushed to his feet and helped her up, giving her a small but stern lecture to be careful.

'_Maybe she would be in mortal danger the second he turns around… for a heartless ballerina she certainly lacks quite a bit in the grace department._' Mikhail let out a little amused laugh at the thought.

Fakir sent him a glare because of it, "What's so funny?"

'_Oh… I dunno… You're completely and utterly in love with a heartless duck gone girl and refuse to admit it even to yourself?_' Mikhail shook the thought away, "Nothing, just thinking."

It was Fakir's turn to raise an eyebrow but he didn't enquire further. Something told him he didn't even _want_ to know.

Ahiru remained silent on the bed, watching emotionlessly as the two continued to converse.

It was odd.

They had been talking about getting her a different room, which she had been fine with. It didn't particularly matter.

But Mikhail said that she would be away from Fakir.

Which was fine…

…but…

…but what?

Fakir was warm, she decided. She didn't pursue the question.

But she had fallen off the bed. Fakir wouldn't leave if she was in danger, at least, if what Mikhail said was true, he wouldn't.

...

Freya twisted and turned on her bed, she couldn't sleep. Not while there were still questions to be answered. Puzzles to be…

Freya didn't rest that evening.

* * *

((Ending Notes: -.-' Don't hurt me! I really meant to update sooner! And I swear the next chapter wont be as crappy! T.T

_Anywho_, Burbs-chan and I drew a MythoxLillie pic the other day X3 I really like how it turned out, it's super cute!

…but no one seems to like it much T.T mou! I know MythoxLillie isn't very popular(or heard of at all) but I really wish more people would like it! –pouts-

…okay… maybe I'm just upset because I spent two hours on the BG(I know, I suck at bg's regardless… but I really tried with this one!) Mou!

-sigh- _Anyway_, I've had a 'Heartless' group pic in the works for quite some time now and I'm almost down… but Burbs-chan won't help me! Waaah! I'm horrible at linearting and CGing! And I really want this to look cool so I asked her for help and she always says 'later'! WAAAAH! T.T –sniff-

_But_ at least it's mostly done! And for those of you who have checked out my devaintART account(there's a link on my profile) you could find the sketch in my scraps! :3

Well, that's enough chatter for now I guess… I have Math class now X.x I'm doomed! T.T!

-Muse-chan sorta hyper and hoping for forgiveness.))


	12. Mabushii

((A/N: Don't kill me, don't kill me, don't kill me… -prays that reviewers won't hurt her- I'm really sorry for the super absolute lateness! I promise it won't happen again(anytime soon)!

I hope you guys like this chapter!

Muse-chan out!))

* * *

**Heartless**

_Mabushi_

_Mukashi, mukashi…_

_There was once a sad girl who wanted to dance with a beautiful maiden…_

_There was once a lake that could not hear the sad melody around it._

_There was once a girl that wanted to go to the ball, just once._

…_and there was once a little girl that died…_

_One day, it rained._

_The lake felt as if the rain were tears but didn't remark, instead she listened to the sad whispers of the duck on it's surface._

_...  
_

Ahiru's blue orbs slipped open.

Something was wrong.

She realized quickly that Fakir, her warmth, was not in his usual place of rest.

Where would he…?

The door opened and Ahiru quickly realized he was probably just returning from the bathroom. Relaxing, she snuck a glance at his approaching form and shivered.

Fakir did not look right with orange eyes. Not in the least.

She didn't stay on the thought long though; it wasn't an entirely important matter.

...

Jaegar was awake bright and early. He had matters to investigate.

Like the blond girl currently hopping out of the girls dorm with a big grin and an occasional comment to her imaginary friend.

Either she'd gone completely insane or she really was possessed by a heart shard.

He didn't take any notice of her new blood red pendant. Girl's jewelry didn't interest him. He was interested in the heart shards.

"Elsie! Good morning!"

Elsie let out a startled yelp and turned to look at him, a look of disbelief on her face, why would Jaegar of all people greet her in morning?

"Er… good morning… Jaegar-kun…" it only occurred to her then that it was her first ever time speaking to him.

Tutu wasn't as skeptical as she; Tutu had no reason be worried about Jaegar talking to Elsie. It was just one of Elsie's friends bidding her a good morning.

Jaegar, under normal circumstances, would have smirked condescendingly at Elsie. It was a happy event when he managed to creep out his classmates. But, as he was trying to appear friendly, he gave her a nervous smile and spoke, "How are you doing this morning?"

"Alright… I guess." Elsie shrugged, figuring that despite misgivings she might have about his intentions, if he was attempting to open friendship than she should be kind, "And you?"

Jaegar opened his mouth to respond, really, he did. He hadn't intended it to hang open with slight shock.

Elsie furrowed her brows and fallowed his line of vision, her own jaw dropping as well.

"_Ahiru_!"

They'd said it at the same time. They both jumped and gave each other measuring looks, completely unaware they'd meant two different sorts of 'ahiru'.

Whereas Elsie recognized the girl from her encounter with the shard and Princess Tutu(she clutched the shard subconsciously), Jaegar had meant the literal translation, 'duck'.

It was the girl… the one the now heartless duck had turned into.

Jaegar made a small 'che' sound and looked back to the girl stumbling along as she was dragged…

…dragged?

Both Elsie and Jaegar looked to see who was connected to the blue eyed girl's hand.

This time they managed to keep from expressing their shock verbally.

Fakir took no notice of their gawking figures though and merely proceeded further down the path while dragging Ahiru along.

They didn't even give each other the time of day to say a simple 'gotta go'.

...

Jaegar rushed to the boys' locker room, hoping to make it there before Fakir. The pace Fakir was moving at made it rather easy though.

'_What the heck is Fakir doing with duck girl? He's not very friendly so he certainly wouldn't have made immediate friends with her…_' he bit his lip, he hadn't been thinking there would be such a loose end but it was absolute now.

'_Fakir knows Duck girl. Whether it's because she's been human before or because he knew her as a duck it still means trouble… damnit…_'

There just seemed to be one screw up in his mission after another.

...

Elsie was surprised. Truly surprised.

It just seemed odd. Even when Tutu told her exactly what she had been suspecting it still seemed odd to her.

_Fakir_ was the knight that was capable of making _Princess Tutu_ blush. Not that Fakir wasn't attractive… just…

Compared to the absolute breath-taking beauty that Princess Tutu was? There didn't seem to be any competition.

He was also… mean. Really mean. He'd always glare at her(and everyone else) and hardly spoke.

So to her, it was odd. Because Tutu was so wonderful and Ahiru seemed so sweet and Fakir seemed…

She shook her head and slipped on her ballet slippers, she was being prejudice. For all she knew Fakir was really kind! He just… had weird ways of expressing it.

She glanced up when the door to the dressing room opened and her breath caught in her throat.

It was Ahiru.

What to do? What to say? 'Hi! I'm collecting your heart'?

Elsie was torn away from her pondering by a sharp gasp. She looked at Princess Tutu.

Tutu was holding back tears.

'Why?' she wanted to ask but she didn't. She already had a vague idea.

Ahiru was a complete blank slate.

She didn't know Ahiru. She didn't know quite how horrible it must have felt for Tutu but she did know that if she saw someone she knew acting so… emotionless? Dead on the inside?

She knew she would be equally upset.

Elsie gulped and approached Ahiru, ready to blurt out whatever she felt necessary… but  
Ahiru's clumsiness apparently had other plans. Ahiru was falling forward before Elsie knew what to do. Luckily Elsie was standing close enough that Ahiru's fall only lasted as long as it took to have head reach shoulder.

Elsie's arms automatically shot out to steady the emotionless girl.

"Are you alright?" it was instinctual, automatic, Elsie asked the question all the time when someone could have been hurt.

"I don't know."

Tutu let out a sob.

Elsie resisted the urge to flinch at the sound and smiled painfully down at Ahiru, "Would you like some help getting ready?" she needed some sort of excuse to stay with Ahiru for a bit.

Why?

Because it's written that way or because she wants to help?

That wasn't a question Elsie could answer. She was only a character.

Ahiru seemed at a loss for how to answer and before she could spout another heart wrenching 'I don't know' Elsie twisted her around and set Ahiru on the bench to sit. She rummaged through Ahiru's bag, finding the leotard and passing to the motionless girls.

She bit her lip, "Can you get ready?"

Ahiru hesitated and nodded slowly, pulling off the vest for her uniform.

Elsie let out a sigh of relief, she wanted to help but she wasn't quite sure about helping Ahiru that much…

When Ahiru finished getting dressed, Elsie helped her up(if Ahiru was as clumsy as Tutu claimed… well, she didn't want Ahiru hurting herself).

She was completely startled after exiting the dressing room. The looming figure of Fakir was waiting right outside and he was glaring evilly at her and even more evilly at the hand she was holding Ahiru's with.

He snatched Ahiru's hand from hers and Elsie was left flabbergasted.

If this guy had a good side, she certainly did _not_ see it.

She narrowed her eyes at his retreating figure and huffed. Tutu giggled.

"What's so funny?"

"_He hasn't changed a bit."_

'_So he was that much of a jerk back then too?_' Elsie refrained from saying this, she didn't want to dampen Tutu's mood which seemed to have lightened considerably since their first encounter with Ahiru.

...

It was getting annoying.

Everyone was curious about the girl following Fakir around. Everyone was wondering why Fakir was so scarily protective of her.

There were many rumors that spread about a secret relationship.

Fakir was pissed. No one spread such rumors when it was Mytho… he shivered at the thought. He did love Mytho… like you love a younger brother. Any other idea was simply gross to him.

If only he knew that there had been one or two rumors back then…

What annoyed him the most though was Jaegar.

The boy was being even more snide than usual and took every possible opportunity to bug Fakir that he could and every so once in a while inquiring about Ahiru…

…well, less inquiring and more making cruel comments that nearly forced Fakir to blurt the entire, tiresome tale.

And to top it off, it was as if he was being double teamed, while Jaegar would distract him with infuriating dialog, the girl from the dressing rooms would attempt conversation with Ahiru.

Even when Rue had been there, it hadn't been this hard to protect his heartless charge.

He never thought he'd miss Rue in the least. But she was thousands of times better than these two.

'_Did Drosselmyer send them to me just to be cruel?_'

He blinked, a thought striking him in one of his few moments of peace.

When was the last time he wrote?

'_Before the story started._'

He hadn't written a word for over a week, not including his school assignments.

'_Was that when the story started?_'

Why hasn't he written at all? Did Drosselmyer write the idea out of his mind?

Why? Why would he do that now when he hadn't bothered to last time? What even the point of doing so when Fakir was still only capable of doing small stuff that hardly interfered with the main plot?

Did he fear Fakir's ability?

Doubtful. Drosselmyer was the type to let the characters play and always have a back up plan for what they might do to steer the story off plot.

"_See what cannot be seen…"_

That was what he could do. He was really only good enough at writing to see the scenes play out without being present and do little things in-between.

'_Is there more going on than I think?_'

Is there something Drosselmyer doesn't want him to—

"—and then there was this crashing noise,"

Fakir's eye twitched.

"What are you doing?"

Elsie blinked up at him innocently, "Just speaking with Ahiru-chan."

"And _how_ many times have I ordered you not to?"

Elsie looked thoughtful, "Well… a few, but I don't like listening to rude jerks who don't allow the ever adorable Ahiru-chan to socialize. It's mean. I swear I don't know _what_ Tutu-chan sees in—" Elsie gasped and clamped her hands over her mouth.

It didn't take long for Fakir's face to start twisting in shock as he realized what she said.

'_Think of a cover! Fast!_'

"Did you just say—"

"Ha ha! I have to go!" she jerked away, attempting an escape. Fakir put a stop to it by gripping her forearm.

"Who's Tutu?"

She blinked innocently, "Tutu?" she looked genuinely confused, "…oh! You misheard me! I said Chuchu-chan! She's my little sister." Elsie was, in fact, an only child, "What kind of name is _Tutu_? I mean _really_!"

Princess Tutu herself looked mildly miffed but Elsie disregarded it.

She didn't want Fakir to know she was looking for Ahiru's heart shards. She knew it had to remain a secret.

Why?

Because it was written.

Fakir, who was normally a blood hound for lies, surprisingly let go of her arm. It was a good thing for Elsie that he was _very_ stressed…

…and thereby willing to believe that it had merely been his stress getting to him. Getting his hopes up.

If Elsie hadn't been so panicked, she might have looked in his eyes during her lie and saw the hope, the desperation that faded into a dull throb of disappointment. She always had been good at reading expressions.

Elsie walked away, anxious and slightly intimidated.

Fakir didn't think to look at her new broach. He might have noticed the similarities if he had.

Drosselmeyer would have giggled with joy at the impending tragedy.

...

Elsie sighed and glanced at Princess Tutu vaguely, she'd been thoughtfully silent since Elsie's encounter with Fakir.

"…Tutu-chan?" she bit her bottom lip, "I didn't mean anything with the name thing you know, Tutu's is a really cute name…"

Tutu shook her head lightly, _"It's not about that, I understand… I was just thinking… Freya wasn't here today…"_

Elsie blinked and nodded, "Come to think of it… she wasn't… you think she's okay?"

Tutu looked conflicted, _"I suppose… but wasn't she acting odd yesterday? Last I checked she wasn't quite so… inquisitive."_

"True…" Elsie agreed.

"_I was thinking… could it be a…"_

"…heart shard?" Elsie finished for her, catching on to the train of thought. Tutu had already listed off all the heart shards she knew of to Elsie and it certainly did seem like curiosity… "Should we look for her?"

Princess Tutu nodded, _"Yes… I really think we should."_

_...  
_

_Freya gasped in both shock and horror at the sight before her._

_The bleeding wasn't stopping. The smaller girl had long since lost consciousness._

"_Papa! Papa, come here!"_

_A blond man rushed up and flinched at what his little girl was pointing at. There was blood everywhere. It would be a miracle if the girl on the ground lived._

"_Papa! We need to help her!"_

_He hesitated; he didn't have the time, money or emotional capacity to take care of a dying girl. Especially when the girl was around Freya's age…_

…_if Freya were dying on the ground, he'd want someone to help her._

"_Freya, hurry home and get out the first aid kit and get a bed ready."_

_Freya nodded and ran off._

_He needed to stop the bleeding first and foremost. He wrapped his jacket haphazardly around the mangled arm. It would scar. That was sure. He gulped and picked her up, he couldn't move to fast or he'd make the injuries worst._

"_Come on… you can't die."_

_He liked to think that he was so worried because he didn't want the girl to die. But he'd already seen too much death to particularly care whether she lived her died._

_He didn't want her to die because Freya would hate him if she did._

_But this was the dark feeling in the back of his heart that he refused to admit to._

_The girls opened a little and he glanced at her face, noting that the girl had probably been out there for hours, she was soaked and the drizzle had ended two hours ago._

_She looked… disappointed? Was she yet another suicidal child cause by the pain of loss?_

"_Where…" she hacked up some blood and mumbled a bit but the man could not make much of it, "…pretty…"_

"_Pretty?" he figured if he kept her talking, she'd be more likely to live._

_Her eyes slid shut, "…purple eyes…"_

_He thought, for a heart stopping moment, that she died. Her breathing slowed but luckily, it didn't stop._

_At the time he'd thought, impressed, that she must have a mighty will to live._

* * *

((Ending Notes: Yeah… I was tired when I wrote this so I'm not sure it's that good -.-' I really hope you all like it! I'll try to update sooner next time!

-Muse-chan fretting.))


	13. Hana

((A/N: First of all, I am so sorry for the late update. Much as my life might be getting in the way, I feel terrible making you guys wait so long -.-;;

On another note, I re-read the fic thus far T.T I feel a definite fail as a author. Most of what I've written is immature, avoids the point and OOC… T.T Elsie I'm particularly disappointed with because I really don't feel I expressed her personality properly.

In conclusion, once I finish this fic it is _so_ up for a re-write. I'd re-write it now but then I'd just feel worse making you guys wait longer for more of the actual plot.

Muse-chan out!))

* * *

**Heartless**

_Hana_

_Mukashi, mukashi…_

_In a forest where none could witness, a sin was committed. Murder, hidden, unseen; the trees were the only that knew what happened, blood staining them as they were powerless to help._

_A murder for the greater good. Hidden, scared, determined a pact was made._

_This murder would not be the last._

_Never again would they let such a crime be committed, even if they had to become the sinners to stop it._

---

They'd searched the entire campus but there was still no sign of Freya.

Elsie stopped running just outside the library for a moment to catch her breath.

"J-just how big is this school anyway?!" Elise managed between gasps for air.

"_Elsie!"_ Tutu called from a few feet ahead, looking urgent.

"What is it?" Elsie looked up barely, not noticing the pendant around her neck beginning to glow.

"_I found her!"_ Tutu replied.

"Eh?!" Elsie rushed up to see if it was the truth, her shock remaining unhidden to the world.

If anyone were watching the scene though, they _might_ think Elsie was off her rocker, considering the fact that she was talking to empty air so empathetically.

"Where?!" she glanced around for a bit, finally spotting Freya inside the library. Without thinking she rushed over… and crashed into the window she was looking through.

"Ow…" Elsie rubbed her nose while squinting her eyes painfully.

Tutu looked concerned

"_Are you alright…?"_ Tutu questioned lightly, kneeling by the fallen girl.

"I'm fine, I'm fine! Let's go!" Elsie's excitement showed through obviously as she rushed to her feet, Tutu couldn't help but smile warmly as the girl ran around the building to find the entrance.

"Hurry up, Tutu-chan!"

Tutu blinked slightly in surprise then smiled widely, _"Hai!"_

Standing in front of Freya, you wouldn't have recognized her.

She had dark rings under her eyes as she scanned book after book with what seemed like a desperate search for knowledge.

'_Freya…_' the sight horrified Elsie, she'd been thinking the entire time how wonderful it would be to return Ahiru's heart… it hadn't crossed her mind how horrible the affects of someone else's emotions might have.

'_I __**have**__ to collect her heart. Not just for Ahiru, but to protect those around me._' Elsie clenched her fists and gulped.

"Fr-Freya-san?" Elsie called quietly.

Freya's eyes shot up.

"Elsie! What are you doing here?"

The tone of voice was one of undiluted curiosity.

It didn't _suit_ Freya.

"I could ask the same question… don't you water your flowers this time of day?" she bit her lip; she needed to help Freya somehow… but how?

Freya's eyes opened widely for a moment, as if someone had turned a light on in her brain. She looked desperate.

"My… flowers…" it was hesitant… and gone within another moment, Freya picked the book back up and began scanning for knowledge fervently.

"_Freya…"_

Elsie blinked in surprise; the lighting in the room had changed… it seemed magical somehow, like when Tutu had danced with the heart shard on top of the lake.

Freya looked up slightly.

"Who are you…?"

Princess Tutu smiled sadly and brought her hands above her head in a spinning motion.

"_Dance with me…?"_

Elsie had to stumble back as Freya took her hand. Tutu was a majestic girl indeed. Every step she took…

…it almost made Elsie jealous, the amount of beauty that Princess Tutu managed to put into each movement. And partnered with a wonderful dancer like Freya…

Elsie was shocked out of her shock by Tutu stopping her movement, '_She was talking a moment ago… ah! Why wasn't I listening?_'

"_Freya…"_ a bright light came from Freya, forming the girl that Elsie was starting to become familiar with. Freya fainted; beginning to fall to the ground but Elsie was close enough to help her land properly.

"_So I'm part of Ahiru's heart?"_ the shard asked curiously.

Tutu nodded gracefully.

"_Will I be able to go back?"_

Tutu nodded in response to this as well.

The pure amount of undiluted grateful joy that showed on the shards face made Elsie feel completely flabbergasted.

'_She's beautiful…_'

Princess Tutu sidled up next to Freya and holding out their hands together, they caught the shard.

'_I wish… I could help more._'

Elsie once again failed to notice her pendant glow, almost in response to her thoughts.

---

Out of the illuminated glow that marked Princess Tutu's presence, the beauty the dancers offered and the shine of the hard shard; he smirked.

It really was a picture perfect scene. Breath-taking really.

But he didn't have a heart to care about that. All he cared about was Elsie was now in possession of a very coveted item.

An item he wanted.

'_I suppose I was wrong… she wasn't the one possessed by a shard…_'

He twitched slightly with the inclination to take the shard from her before shaking his head, later. He'd take it from her later.

His amused smirk morphed into a wicked one.

He _would_ get that heart. No matter what.

---

Fakir stared at the paper before him, a wave of nausea coming over him.

It had been too long since he wrote.

What should he write? What _could_ he write?

He wanted to know what was going on. Was Heidi Princess Kraehe? Who was the boy with the ravens? Why was Ahiru a human…?

Fakir let his eyes drift from the paper to the motionless girl.

…how was he supposed to save her without Princess Tutu…?

Fakir couldn't resist a dry laugh; most of the he'd spent with Mytho he'd lamented Princess Tutu's assistance, and now he would give anything for her to come back…

…it was a shame that Princess Tutu was the one that lost her heart…

Fakir let out a long tired sigh. He was getting off topic, he needed to write. It was the only way he could save her…

_Duty._

_He has to kill the raven princess, or everything is lost._

_He _has_ to kill her._

_Stress. Fear. Duty._

_What if he fails? He fails his family, his country!_

_What if he's killed? He'll never see his parents again…!_

_He has to succeed. With the Kings sword._

_The duck, what about the duck? Why did it turn into a girl? Who is it?_

_Confusion. Fear…_

"_Have I already failed…?"_

Fakir's quill stopped.

Who was he writing about? Nonsense…

Fakir sighed and crumpled the page. More than anything else it reminded him of how he used to be…

It felt like it was just his frustration showing through. That all he could do was write.

Fakir sighed, nothing made sense.

A hand touched his shoulder and Fakir jumped slightly before realizing it was Ahiru.

"Ahiru…?"

Ahiru cocked her head to the side curiously, "Hai?"

Fakir shook his head, "Never mind…"

'…_it felt like she was worried about me…_'

Fakir allowed a slight smile to tug at the corner of his mouth at the thought; it gave him some hope.

It was this moment that was interrupted by someone knocking on the door.

Fakir's smile faded and he directed his attention toward the entryway, "It's open."

Autor entered with a prominent scowl.

Fakir blinked, slight concern showing through, "What's wrong?"

Autor shook his head sighing, "Nothing, just…" Autor's mouth twitched irately, "…some particularly _irritating_ entities taking root in _my_ library."

Fakir noting the demonic aura Autor exuded decided it best not to point out that it was the school's library.

"…I swear, almost reminds me of the days when you and Ahiru would cause trouble… and that terrible child with the drum! Argh!"

Deciding once more that when Autor was this irritated, it was best not to retort, Fakir gave him a deadpan look, "Is there any _other_ reason you're here?"

Autor's face grew serious, "I can't find 'The Prince And The Raven'."

Fakir blinked, "What do you mean?"

"The book! Herr Drosselmeyer's most famous one I might add! I can't find it! I've looked everywhere in town and it's gone!"

It was Fakir's turn to get serious, "But why…"

Autor grunted and sat on Fakir's bed, "I don't know." He let out a heavy sigh and rested his face in his hands, "None of this makes any sense…!"

Ahiru watched on, uninterested and uncaring of what was happening.

---

Mikhail stared at the door in front of him for some time.

Why was he hesitating…?

On the other side he knew his little sister would be, probably reading a book(if he had to guess which he would say Swan Lake, that book always made her feel nostalgic).

…but…

He didn't know. What to say, what to do…

She'd lied to him.

When she said she didn't remember she was lying and he knew it, but he didn't call her on it. She was scared; she didn't know what to do…

But it terrified him; what if she _was_ 'Kraehe'? What if she left? What if she lied for malicious reasons?

He didn't want those theories proven right. She was his precious little sister; he wanted to be able to protect her.

So he was scared.

Mikhail shook his head firmly, Heidi was Heidi! Regardless of who she was before she was Heidi now. His little sister.

With a deep intake of breath, Mikhail knocked on the door.

There was the slight sound of scuffle on the other side before the door was opened slightly by Heidi in her reading glasses, her expression apprehensive.

When first realizing who it was her face immediately brightened, "Mikhail-niichan!" the door opened all the way and she hugged him.

A peak in her room and he spotted Swan Lake on the bed.

She was lonely. She only hugged him when she was lonely.

"What brings you here?" without her notice she was smiling, Mikhail's own lips quirked.

"Just to see how you are doing, I was nearby."

Her smile widened slightly but she tried to suppress it. She knew he was lying, he was worried.

"Where's your roommate?"

Heidi blinked, "Ah, she went to her parent's house for dinner tonight."

Mikhail smiled, "Maybe we should head back home for the weekend, I miss moms cooking."

She nodded, smiling. It had been forever since she'd been home, she missed it.

Mikhail grinned and ruffled her hair, teasing her on her silly expression before leaving.

She closed the door and sat on the floor.

She missed it…

…She wanted to go back to before…

Crows pecked at her window.

She wanted to go back…!

The book lay on her bed, forgotten. Faint memories of a beautiful maiden and a wonderful dance forgotten with it.

---

Kaethe sat back, she _loved_ libraries. So many books, no one to bother her and most importantly, it was warm.

Drosselmeyer was still involved in the story. This much she knew for a fact. And worst of all, he had her character design now; he knew her past, her weakness', her fears… he could control her.

'_But that would be completely unnecessary if I'm not a threat._'

With a small, dry smile, Kaethe decided not to get involved.

If she wasn't involved, if she didn't write, if she didn't do anything… she wouldn't be a character, she'd be free.

'_So I'll just watch…_'

A small grin grew.

'…_and wait._'

On the other side of the library, Drago stared for a moment, allowing himself a second to feel foolish for not realizing she'd be here, before turning tale and getting lost in the aisles of books.

Uzura stared from her perch on the second floor, "Oooooh…"

---

Elsie held onto the new shard with a smile. She'd give it to Ahiru first thing in the morning!

For now she was tired… with a slight smile she turned to tell Tutu that she was heading back to the dorms.

…all she saw was gears…

Elsie jolted out of her sleep, scared. Tutu looked at her sympathetically, _"Are you alright?"_

Elsie smiled shakily, "Hai… just a nightmare…"

Her roommate stirred and Elsie immediately regretted speaking so loudly, turning to Tutu again she excused herself to go to the restroom.

'_I feel uneasy…_' Elsie took a deep breath, the halls of the dorm were always so bleak and empty at night, it felt as if she were the only person there…

A sound behind her made her suddenly wish that was true. Whirling around, Elsie looked for the source of the sound.

She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, it was her imagination.

An arm wrapped around her neck from behind, "Where's the shard?"

* * *

_((Ending Notes: Yep, yep! That was Muse-chan's pitiful attempt at a cliffy! Did it work? xDD_

_A lot of fluff in this chappy(sorta) but most of my ideas for this fic have changed a lil since I was last working on it so this chapter was basically me preparing for the changes x3_

_FYI: Nothing is as it seems!! xDDDD mwahaha!_

_In any case, you guys can expect an update fairly soon, in the meanwhile…_

_LOOK AT THE PRETTY ART!! http : // sakura02 . deviantart . com / art / Heartless – 95198257_

_(without the spaces obviously)_

_Ya-ha! Till we meet again! (hopefully real soon)_

_-Muse-chan making a website.))_


	14. Yonde

_((A/N: Ya-ha! Told ya I'd update soon!!_

_Maaa, I'm worried about my other fics though -.-; I haven't updated those in forever . oh well, I'm going to try my best to concentrate on this one and 'Steal The Dead' for now =3 hopefully I'll get better at frequent updates!_

_Muse-chan out!))_

_

* * *

  
_

**Heartless**

_Yonde_

_Mukashi, mukashi…_

_There was once a kingdom full of hate and pain. Every day the people suffered, but worst of all, the castle was corrupt._

_The king died of illness a year ago leaving the castle distraught without an heir. Violence broke out and trickery became all too common._

_Among this chaos, one knight watched and waited, eyes glazed over with schemes and cruelty._

---

Drago stared blankly ahead as those around him argued. In the scheme of things, he really had no say in what happened or how it was handled; he was just the volunteer to do the job no one wanted to.

Become 'human'.

Many crows resented him for it even, not because he took the job but what it _made_ him…

_Physically_ he was _human_.

And one thing all the crows here could agree on was their hate for humans. Some even dared to curse the Raven Princess because of her hideous form.

Even some the 'outside' raven faction seemed to resent him for the choice; Ada in particular could not forgive him for taking such a horrible form.

The only ones that seemed to not care at all were Fruity, Harmon and Cubie, which in itself intimidated him.

Fruity, unlike him, _was_ in power and had a sick sense of humor. Most everything Fruity did always seemed to root back to an ulterior motive.

Cubie was simply confusing on a regular basis. His actions were odd and unpredictable.

Harmon on the other hand made him wary, Harmon had never previously shown any particular hate for humans _but_ he hated Kaethe and he was the most loyal to the deceased Raven among the 'outside' faction.

In the end he was either resented or accepted under questionable motives. It was nothing new or even odd, but it meant that any say he might have had previously in how things were dealt with was now nullified.

Not that it mattered; he wasn't one to care much for the method.

He had to fight a scoff though, 'Fruity', 'Harmon', 'Ada', 'Drago'… all names _she_ gave them. They had no _need_ for names, no necessity… yet, the names remained, perhaps more as a sardonic reminder of 'once upon a time' but they stayed none the less.

Caramel, who was perched nearby, twitched roughly bringing his attention back to the meeting.

Fruity and a few others(Ada was there as well) were arguing with the highest in command of the 'inside' faction. Drago hadn't the faintest idea what the argument was about this far in(the sentences were fractured, angry) but he could certainly tell that it was getting worse and potentially violent.

This left him with few choices, he could choose to help a side(likely Fruity's) when it got violent or he could remain apathetic and uninvolved. Knowing Fruity it would probably be best if he remained uninvolved; currently he was 'different', anything he did or said would have a huge impact on Fruity's campaign(negative or positive) and Fruity wouldn't want him to act without telling him prior.

'_Manipulative…_' Drago's thoughts trailed off as he realized something seemed odd.

It was quiet.

A quick assessment of the area showed him an unexpected result; Fruity had submitted. Drago's eyes immediately narrowed, now he _knew_ Fruity had some sort of ulterior motive.

There was no way someone like Fruity would quit without a greater plot to undermine hidden beneath.

---

"_Manipulative, prudent and twisted…" she trailed off staring into space, "…you really are something aren't you, Fruity?"_

With a smile in his eyes, Fruity let out the smallest sound. It was quiet, decisive, and victorious.

If he could afford to give a further expression of satisfaction, he would.

'_Check mate._'

---

Elsie found it hard to breathe. Unconsciously she thought of the precious gem still clutched in her trembling hand and lamented bringing it with her.

Behind her, her captor seemed to grow impatient, with a jerk of his arm she found it hard to breathe for a different reason.

"I hope you realize I could snap your tiny neck easily. Tell me where the shard is!"

Snickering, sneering, grinning… mocking.

Elsie blinked, for all she tried to concentrate on the problem at hand she couldn't help feeling that the voice was… or should be more joking. Maybe not harmless, but definitely humorous…

'_How weird…_'

"W-why…" she choked, "…why do you want it?"

A shiver ran down her spine and somewhere in the back of her mind she felt as if he must be smiling very coldly, "Do you really want to know?"

She didn't.

She _really_ didn't.

Somehow she knew that it would be too horrifying for her. She wasn't meant to deal with something so…

…painful?

She jerked away and whirled to face him.

No one. The hallway was empty.

'_Where…?_'

Her hand was twisted behind her back and she was forced to move to accommodate for the sudden pain.

"It's in your hand…?" he was back to the painfully emotionless voice.

'…_was it emotionless before?_'

He twisted her fingers and retrieved the stone, pushing her down as he did so and grinni…

Elsie turned to look at him and froze.

He was grinning…

…but it wasn't a human grin… it wasn't even a human face…!

Elsie backed away horrified.

The puppet continued to stare at his prize with his wide, emotionless grin before lifting it to his face.

Her eyes widened, '_He's going to eat it!_'

Victory flashed in his ice blue eyes and she moved to stop him.

There were plenty of good reasons why she should try to stop him; it was Ahiru's heart shard; Tutu would cry; she didn't want to lose…

…but the only thing she could think of as she ran to stop him was 'poison'.

If he ate that she was sure that it would destroy him.

How did she know…?

…it was written.

"Stop!"

---

Ink dried on the page and she stared at it one last time.

She'd done all she could for now. Other than that, it was up to Elsie and Tutu.

This alone could attract Drosselmeyers very unwanted attention… but she didn't want to leave that dangling, she needed to give it something to work off of, to _grow_ off of.

'_Elsie is _my_ character. I won't let Drosselmeyer use her._'

---

Autor stared at his journal, unsure how to phrase what he wanted to say.

There were too many odd details.

He wasn't written about in the story; that alone was weird enough to send him for a loop… but that wasn't what concerned him the most.

'The Prince and The Raven' vanishing confused him, frustrated him but putting into consideration that he had the entire text practically memorized, it wasn't too distressing…

Drago from the drama school and Kaethe from the art… or ballet, he really wasn't sure…

Both were frequent visitors to the library. Drago he was grateful to have, it helped him keep a close eye on the boy... he still couldn't shake the feeling that he was somehow like Rue.

…but Kaethe seemed to be like a bad luck charm. She had perfect manners when in the library but wherever she went _chaos_ seemed to follow... worst of all she seemed to like it.

But that wasn't what concerned him the most.

Drago _avoided_ Kaethe. He wouldn't do something quite as conspicuous as leave as soon as seeing her but he went through great pains to not be seen by her… and to not see her.

It disturbed him.

It was a crazy, unexplained, _ridiculous_ theory, but if Drago really was what Autor thought he was…

…then who is Kaethe? How does she fit? She didn't give the same aura Drago did… but Drago was definitely concerned with her existence.

There, Autor blinked, _that_ was what bothered him.

Crows weren't _concerned_ about anything. They mindlessly listened to the orders of the Monster Raven.

That was how the story was written.

His brows furrowed, '_But the Monster Raven is dead… whose orders are they following?_'

On that note, even ignoring whose orders they were following, why was the raven 'boss' concerned with Kaethe?

'…_or is it just Drago that's concerned…?_'

He didn't even want to think on that option, it opened up a whole new thought pattern and he was tired.

But he still had no idea what to write, no idea how to express himself.

_Ahiru is still emotionless. Fakir doesn't want to admit it but he's tearing himself up about the whole thing and he can't stand to see her like this much longer._

_Mikhail and I haven't talked about it but we're both thinking of leaving Ahiru with Fakir's guardian; with or without Fakir's permission._

_Princess Tutu… I only saw her once before Ahiru became a duck again… she felt like, everything was going to be okay. She felt as if she could save the world if given the chance; she was 'hope' in a way. I wonder if she'll miraculously give us hope now. We need it._

_This scares me._

Autor stared at the page with mild surprise, he hadn't been thinking about Fakir or Ahiru at all… it was odd that they would appear on his page. Though after a moment of shock he realized that it wasn't an appropriate entry; it was too emotional. He was keeping a log of what's happened, not a diary!

It dawned on him that that was why it was so hard to express his thoughts on Drago and Kaethe. For all he knew it was pure paranoia and beyond that, he didn't have any _good_ facts to write on the matter, only half thought out speculations.

'_To be proper theories, I need to think them out _thoroughly_._'

Actually satisfied with his conclusion, Autor left to get some tea, he wouldn't go to sleep until he'd figured out every possibility he could think of and written it out in a logical fashion.

---

The floor was cold. That was all she could think for a moment before remembering her situation. With reflexes she wasn't sure she owned previously, she reached for the shining red heart shard a few feet away.

The puppet, from his position underneath her groaned and caught his bearings. He'd hit his head on the ground when she tackled him.

She let out a sigh of relief when she retrieved the item before she scuttled to her feet and backed away from him…

…and blinked. He looked… familiar.

He was dressed like a clown, his orange hair had fallen out of its ponytail…

'…_really familia—_'

"Give me back the shard."

He was glaring at her. She took an involuntary step back and realized her only course of action.

With a deep breath she let out all the fear and confusion she had felt since the beginning of this encounter…

…in the form of a scream.

His eyes widened and she smiled weakly.

"You should go."

He glared one last time, "That was dirty."

She shrugged and watched him run off, waiting for her 'help' to arrive. She wouldn't be able to tell them what really happened so she would have to lie and say she was sleepwalking. She cringed at the thought of lying.

Tutu stood a few feet away, head hung and expression grim.

She couldn't do anything to help Elsie; all she could do was watch and hope for the best.

Tears prickled her eyes. She couldn't even distract the attacker! All she would do was distract Elsie and potentially make the situation worse.

With a sick feeling in her stomach, Tutu waited until Elsie was ready to head back to bed before going back herself.

---

Morning; bane of the many, love of the few.

At least, that's how it seemed on a school campus. Neko-sensei shook away those thoughts and brought his attention back to the very intimidated classroom. He'd caught a girl falling asleep only a few seconds prior and had proposed to her.

She said no. With a dejected sigh, Neko-sensei began instructing the class, noting that Freya seemed to be back to normal…

…but Elsie was worse than ever. She looked upset and confused. She couldn't concentrate.

'_Could it be… love?_'

Neko-sensei made note to have a talk with her about it later.

Fakir on the other hand, was relieved that Elsie seemed trapped in her thoughts; it meant she couldn't start bothering him and Ahiru again…

His brow furrowed, '_Bother? All she was trying to do was befriend Ahiru…_' he sighed, he was being over-protective again… but what if she realized there was something weird about Ahiru? What then?

"Good morning, Fakir!"

Fakir jumped slightly, his attention brought to the figure in front of him.

Jaegar grinned sarcastically(Fakir wasn't sure how he managed it) , "Did you sleep well last night?"

Confusion hit Fakir, why was he even asking?

With a sneer and a roll of his eye, Fakir looked away. He'd slept fine but he was sure Jaegar was just trying to mess with him somehow.

Jaegar's expression grew sinister, "_Then why do you look like you haven't slept in weeks_?"

Fakir couldn't begin to explain why, but his body went cold.

Something about Jaegar's statement scared him.

He prepared to say something in return but Jaegar was already walking away.

---

She needed to find some time to return Ahiru's heart shard. Elsie knew it but she wasn't sure when or how she'd manage it, Fakir was as protective as ever.

…and…

The events of the night prior left everything feeling very odd. She was confused, scared and she couldn't figure out why she felt like she was forgetting something desperately important…

Class ended and she had a good ten minute break before her next one started.

She felt terribly, she knew she was worrying Tutu but she didn't know how to _begin_ in explaining what happened or why she felt so apprehensive.

It was scary. Terrifying.

…and she was worried. About her attacker of all things!

The emotionless grin, the poison… she cringed slightly, feeling bad for thinking of Ahiru's heart like poison, but in all truth at the time…

…it felt like the puppet would suffer horribly if she let him eat it. Which didn't make much sense; it was really more of a gut feeling than anything else…

"_Elsie…"_

Elsie was pulled out of her revere and brought her attention to the worried spirit, "Hai?"

"_About last night…-"_

"Elsie-_chan_!"

Both Elsie and Tutu jumped at the approaching voice, Jaegar jogged up and smirked, "What are you doing talking to yourself?"

_Snickering, mocking, sneering… humorous._

Elsie felt a jolt of familiarity as Jaegar's smirk drifted to a grin, "You aren't going insane, are you?"

Elsie's brows furrowed together and she tried hard to ignore the creepy feeling growing in her gut, he'd been mocking her since he called out to her(she could hear it in his voice), she had no time to spend pondering over nostalgic feelings.

"No, I'm not." She tried hard not to sound defensive, but she failed miserbly.

His grin only grew, "Ah, then are you by any chance…" he paused, looking her over with sick amusement, "…scared?"

Her gut clenched and she took a step back, "No. I'm not."

"That's good." His grin faded but the amusement remained in his eyes, "…it wouldn't be any fun to steal it from you if you weren't in your right mind."

"_Give me the shard!"_

_Orange hair, ice blue eyes…_

Elsie's eyes widened.

---

The raven princess would die.

Determined yellow eyes glared at the clueless girl walking through the forest; she paid no notice, she was following the call of her blood.

Entranced, confused, scared…

The knight shook his head; she wasn't human. She was a raven.

And she would die like one.

* * *

_((Ending Notes: -.-;; sorta short, sorry. I wanted to updated to update soon because of all of your encouragement =3 (your reviews are all wonderful!)_

_I feel this ended up being a bit… arbitrary. Maybe I rushed it a bit much…_

_As for cutting up the action in the puppet vs Elsie thing, I'm not sure how well I did. It's the first time I've tried something like that -.-; tell me what you guys thought! :)_

_-Muse-chan eating curry.))_


	15. Himitsu

_((A/N: ...is it just me, or does ff . net hate line breaks? I mean **serisously**! This isn't the first time they've taken all my line breaks and I've had to replace them ;n; until I finish doing so, btw, I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience._

_In other news... yay! I finally updated! x3 sorry about that guys, I know it's gotta get pretty old waiting an eternity or two for a new chapter ;A; I'm trying! I really am!_

_But I have to thank you all for supporting me and reviewing! I love every single review and it always helps me keep going!(even when I'm having trouble) thank you all so much for liking this story enough to give it the time of day! I really appreciate it!_

_Muse-chan out!))_

* * *

**Heartless**

_Himitsu_

_Mukashi, mukashi..._

_There was once a little girl that told lies and spread them everywhere._

_She claimed to know what everyone was up to and told her tall tales to any and all who would listen. Slowly everyone believed the lies for truth and there was no truth to be found._

_The girl smiled and laughed, lording her victory over truth, thinking that now she was the truth._

_Her smile and laugh slowly faded with each lie she told as not a soul knew who she was._

_She had become a lie that whispers in the wind and could no longer be a little girl._

_...  
_

When she was a child Freya knew a little girl without a name. The girl was damaged nearly beyond repair and seemed to have sacrificed her voice in exchange for the bliss of ignorance. Not that the girl was blissful…

…just silent and pensive. Her father used to say that the little girl was very strong willed and seemed intelligent.

Freya had only really paid partial attention though. Her primary worries at the time included how to convince her father to bring her garden with them when they moved and grief for her recently departed mother.

The nameless girl stayed with them until she healed and then, while they were moving, she vanished.

Freya never told her father but she found something the girl had written after she left. The spelling was terrible and the hand writing was near illegible but Freya knew it was the girl.

It was a very short story, maybe three paragraphs tops, about beautiful eyes, a rainy day, and a flower that _tried_. At the very end of the silly, nonsensical, story Freya spotted the tiniest scribble of a name.

Freya never told her father, but the story came true and the little girl wasn't nameless.

…

The forest near campus wasn't a particularly marvelous one, in fact it could even be considered more as a park then anything else, but it always struck Lillie with wonder. It always felt to her as the beginning of something.

Something scary, something laughable, something adorable… perhaps something tragic.

This was of course why Lillie often _insisted_ that she and Pique have a picnic there at _least_ once a week. What with Lillie's life _lacking_ something adorable to torment she'd have to start from the beginning to find one.

Although Lillie _had_ to admit, the duck that often spent time with them was absolutely _delicious_ when scared. It almost made Lillie's heart ache.

It wasn't Lillie that noticed something was wrong though. She was far too entrapped in her daydreams of a beginning and a clumsy girl to pay attention to the world about her. This is why it was Pique's job to look up from her sandwich(that she feared eating, as Lillie was responsible for snacks this time) just in time to spot something _wrong_ with the normally peaceful forest.

Now perhaps if it were only one thing disturbing her Pique would have directed her attention back to her (mildly terrifying) sandwich and eaten whatever monstrosity Lillie had likely purposely prepared… but there were many things startling the girl.

The crows, for starters, were gathering at an alarming rate to another part of the woods. This didn't scare her too much(what business was it of hers what the crows were doing?) but the other sounds of the wood(students on picnics, birds chirping all too cheerfully, the rustle of a soft wind) seemed dulled, nearly nonexistent and Heidi-sempai, a girl that was rarely, if ever, spotted off campus was walking deeper and deeper into the forest with the _strangest_ expression on her face.

It sent chills down Pique's spine.

"Lillie…"

"Mm?" Lillie looked up from her own sandwich, noting that she had accidentally taken the sabotaged one and Pique could, sadly, eat her sandwich without fear, "What is it?"

…

Fakir could only stare at the page in front of him with all the intensity he could muster in his exhausted state.

He _had_ to write. He knew he had to. If he didn't there's no way he would be able to save Ahiru… or find out what Drosselmeyer is trying to do.

The page remained blank, the quill in his hand faltered.

Where should he start? _How_ could he start?

_"Then why do you look like you haven't slept in weeks?"_

The quill dropped and Fakir clutched his head. Why was that bothering him so much?

Ahiru's squeak and a small crash pulled him away from his frustration and into reality, "What did you do now?"

If Ahiru was normal she most likely would have looked sheepish but the empty Ahiru only stared blankly. Fakir hated how well he knew her responses, how well he knew _her_. There was _nothing_ he could think of that brought quite the same pain as seeing a girl the _didn__'__t__ know_.

To his recollection when he got to know Mytho there was nothing more _agitating_ than the meddlesome interference of _Princess__ Tutu_; nothing more _terrifying_ than more of the story coming to life.

His scar prickled with the thought.

_But_ there was nothing more comforting than the gentle grace of the stunning dancer doing her best. It was that comfort that he needed _so__ badly_.

Princess Tutu came and _fixed_ things, whether or not he wanted them fixed. Princess Tutu softened hard edges and brought peace to festering wounds.

_Ahiru _brought a smile to his lips.

He never wished so strongly for Princess Tutu to come save the day. The tragic princess who only knew love… _why__ couldn__'__t__ she__ protect__ Ahiru __too_?

Why was the poor forgotten duck _always_ dancing on her own? Trying _so__ hard_… why couldn't anyone ever protect _her_?

_Why __did__ he__ always__ fail__ to__ protect__ her_?

_Princess__ Tutu_, he smiled bitterly, _would __be__ able__ to__ but __all__ I __can __do__ is__ petty__…_

He paused, he'd already gone over this more times than he could count, the need to physically protect what he cares about from all harm. The dire _wish_ to be the knight that _protected_ the prince instead of dying tragically, to _save_ the girl instead of watching helplessly, to _stop_ the crows before they killed his—

He was different now. It didn't matter how many times he had to remind himself for it to stick in his thick head. Waving a sword around isn't going to get him anywhere, being _jealous_ of a tragic princess isn't going to save anyone.

His _talent_, the one thing he _can_ do and _will_ in order to save those important to him is _write_.

In many ways it's a much harder thing than swinging around some sharp implement of disaster.

Fakir picked the pen back up, it would be difficult, it always hurt… but did pain ever stop Tutu from dancing? Did it ever stop _Ahiru_?

He'd never give up.

…

Elsie was _sure_ that one of these days she would get good at planning. It'd be wonderful if she could for once come up with a masterful plan that would solve all her problems…

Elsie sighed and looked at the boys dormitory forlornly one more time, she had _hoped_ _beyond__ hoped_ that she would follow (stalk) Fakir and Ahiru to this point and then they would go separate ways and she was _finally_ return the shard to Ahiru.

She really tried not to think why Ahiru went into the boys dormitory rather than wherever she must be staying.

"Tutu-chan?"

The fairytale princess glanced at her, _"__Yes?__"_

"What do you know about…" Elsie paused, trying to figure out if it was possible to scale the building to the balcony she knew belonged to the schools resident ice-cube in human form, "Puppets?"

Tutu blinked, mildly surprised by the question, _"__Puppets__…__?__"_ what didn't she know about puppets? They had been Drosselmeyers favorite toys. They decorated her memories with fear and… sadness.

She remembered dancing for a burning puppet who sacrificed herself for another's life.

She remembered darling little Uzura.

She remembered being strung up like a toy.

"_Why do you ask?"_

Elsie grunted as she fell from her very short, very unsuccessful climb, "The boy from last night, the one that attacked me…"

"Jaegar?" it still puzzled Tutu why a boy from Elsie's class would gain anything from attacking her.

The blond girl nodded, "Yeah, _him_," the distaste in her voice was far more evident than it should have been; "When he attacked me… he looked like a clown puppet."

_That_ caught Tutu's total attention, _"__You__'__re__ sure?__"_

Elsie sighed, giving up on climbing and brooding over how she should go about giving Ahiru her shard _now_, "Positive. It was _creepy_; I wouldn't have believed he was Jaegar if he hadn't come up to me. He didn't look human at all last night."

Tutu opened her mouth the respond but startled at a cawing from above.

Crimson red eyes of a much too dark raven stared deviously at Elsie before leaving its perch on Fakir's balcony. Only seconds later the window opened hurriedly and Fakir himself could be seen staring after the bird before slamming the window shut.

Moments later he rushed out of the building.

Elsie, seeing her chance, slipped in before the front door slammed shut behind him. Mentally she thanked the crow; whatever it had done she now had the chance she needed.

She didn't even notice that Tutu was with her until she reached the second floor.

…

If there was one thing Fakir had learned through all the drama of Mytho it was that crows' gathering over a portion of the forest is a very _bad_ sign. Bad enough that he forgot to lock his to door. But he won't learn about that until later.

Princess Tutu wasn't far behind him, fearful of what the crows could mean.

Fearful for Fakir's safety.

The crow on Fakir's balcony gave her a bad feeling… it's like it _wanted_ Fakir to follow it.

For not the first time she pushed back tears of frustration, she couldn't tell him that it seemed dangerous, she couldn't say anything. Even if she did see trouble she couldn't _do_ anything but watch!

Stopping Fakir seemed like an impossible dream.

"Fakir-sempai!"

The teen stopped running to see who had called, glaring at whoever it may be for disrupting his chase.

Ahiru's old friends stared at him, the blond one seeming amused and the other one looking determined, "If you're looking for Heidi-san she was walking towards Ebine's."

Fakir stopped himself from brushing her off and continuing to run. He normally ignored what the two had to say and it was a little difficult not to allow old habits to control him.

Why was she even telling him about Heidi?

"I saw her awhile ago and she seemed kind of distraught, I thought that maybe the two of you had a fight…"

Fakir blinked, "A fight?"

Pique blushed and fidgeted, "I mean, like, a couples fight. It's got to be weird dating your best friends little sister, right? So I thought…"

Fakir stared incredulously at the girl, unsure how exactly to respond, "Wha…?"

"Sorry! I know it's supposed to be a secret but I just kind of heard about it!" Pique took Lillie's hand and made a run for it, "Sorry to bother you!"

…since when was he dating Heidi? Fakir let out a long suffering sigh and decided to get to the bottom of that later. Just as he was about to continue chasing the raven he paused, grit his teeth, and changed course for Ebine's.

Tutu sighed in relief; she hadn't been able to shake the awful feeling about chasing that raven… a caw disrupted her thoughts.

The very same red eyes from earlier glared down at her.

Fear was perhaps that first thing that struck Tutu; this crow seemed smart and dangerous. Crows had only ever caused her and the prince pain.

With one thought towards Ahiru, she smiled.

Ahiru, sweet, brave Ahiru, the duck that did her best.

In ever practiced grace, she moved her hands over her head elaborately.

"_Would you like to dance?"_

…

Sneaking had never been Elsie's strong point. She was light footed and graceful, she was an amazing dancer, but sneaky she was not. It probably stemmed from her honest personality but she'd rarely if ever had a need to before now.

At the moment however sneaking was an absolute _imperative_. She did _not_ want to be found in the boys' dormitory snooping around! Especially not when she was snooping about to find a very popular boys bedroom…

It sounded like a recipe for disaster to her.

"…out of curiosity, _what __are_ you doing here?"

"Trying to find Fakir-sempai's room… I have to—" Elsie paused, realizing perhaps a bit too late that she was _not_ in fact whispering to her invisible friend that follows her everywhere.

Briefly, she questioned whatever deity might happen to be listening, why she hadn't noticed the distinctly male aspects to the voice prior to responding.

It occurred to her a moment later that the voice isn't just male; it has a certain _humorous_ and _mocking_ aspect to it that was much too familiar for her comfort. All over again she was reminded of gears.

Behind her, Jaegar chuckled darkly, "And here I thought you were here to visit me."

Elsie whirled around glaring at the _much__ too__ casual_ form of the male dancer. Grinning like he'd just caught a particularly interesting critter, Jaegar leaned languidly against the wall.

"What are you doing here?"

Jaegar raised a careful brow, "I _live_ here."

"Oh." Elsie shuffled, trying not to run to Fakir's room. She wanted to return Ahiru's shard as soon as possible, but she didn't want Jaegar to know. No he can't know.

Ahiru needed help and she'd make sure to give it.

Jaegar stopped smiling, standing straighter, "Well, since we're all here, lets just cut to the chase. I need that shard and _you_ are going to give it to… or find a great deal of difficulty breathing while I remove it by force."

Elsie bit her lip and stepped back. How was she supposed to fight this guy? If last time showed anything it was he was sadly stronger and not quite human. And _this_ time she didn't really have the option of screaming.

And to begin with, she wasn't really much of a fighter. She'd never actually fought a person in her life. She could dance and she loved to help people, how _exactly_ would that help her against this _puppet_?

'_He __seems __pretty __human __right__ now__ though__…_'

Oh how she wished this could be solved with a dance off. She was quite confident in her skills there.

Jaegar shrugged, "The hard way it is…"

He lunged for her.

…

Always cawing and clawing at her window. Always so many and so impossible. She can't hide, no, they'd find her.

But she doesn't want to hide. No, she has to hide. She can't…

That sick, twisted, unwanted smile found its way to her lips. She wanted to _hurt_ something… not just hurt… she wanted to _rule_.

Oh how the critters called to her, calling and screaming and just begging to be…

No, no, no, she can't, tears prickled her crimson eyes, eyes that scared her sometimes, eyes she knew belonged to something _powerful_. She could be powerful. It would be _incredible_.

Mikhail-niichan…

And the _cawing_! It never stops!

It was _maddening_.

Heidi, the poor, confused girl that wanted to learn to smile, barely noticed that she was being dragged further into the forest in her daze.

And then there was a building with crows perched everywhere. Dangerous. Incredibly dangerous.

They weren't crows, they were _soldiers_.

_Her_ soldiers.

'_No__…_'

Heidi clutched her head and collapsed, if only she could just stop _thinking_ and it was so hard with all the _ravens_…

She had to find Mikhail. Squaring her shoulders she tried to stand, stumbling and almost failing, before catching her balance and getting unsteadily to her feet.

She'd ignore the stupid _crows_ and find her older brother.

Boots crushing leaf speckled earth jolted her out of her thoughts.

Breathing was hard all over again. Every part of her stiffened with fear. The sound of a sword being pulled out of its sheath summoning a muffled scream from her throat.

She whirled around, losing her balance in the process, staring in terror at the tall figure of _that __terrible,__ disgusting __human_ that had attacked her before.

Eyes narrowed with determination, the silent knight prepared to strike the helpless girl.

The crows watched apathetically, one crimson eyed crow in particular seeming to enjoy the development quite a bit.

…

It was precisely that moment, mostly propelled by fear, Elsie moved out of the way with all the grace a dancer in the special class should possess.

She smiled, she had realized, in a moment of pure adrenaline, what she _could_ do.

Jaegar glared, "You're only delaying the inevitable."

Elsie frowned at him, "You can't take the shard if you can't touch me and I can dance _circles_ around you."

The puppet 'tch'ed, debating his next move a little more carefully.

Really it would have worked out pretty good for Elsie if a head of orange hair hadn't peaked out of a close by door, followed, of course, by an awkward looking girl without a single expression lighting up her freckled cheeks.

Jaegar grinned, now he had a hostage.

* * *

_((Ending Notes: Another thing this site seems to hate, italics! I always have to go through the entire thing and make sure they haven't been bunched together again! ARGH! ;A;_

_Whatever... anyway I really hope you guys liked the new chapter! Feel free to pick on it for being too little too late, I'm gonna try and get the next one out soon! Thank you for all the wonderful support!_

_-Muse babysitting in Korea))  
_


End file.
